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:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on November 26, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition boon support build for Specter. Provides permanent Alacrity, Fury, Swiftness and Vigor, and up to ~15 stacks of Might. Specter can 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.

Dagger/Dagger is a higher DPS variant, but has forced movement and is melee-focussed rather than the fully ranged playstyle that Scepter allows. It additionally removes the option to use Scepter skills for their supportive effects during downtime/emergencies.

• This build prioritises Bleeding over Torment, so it is better to run a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agony instead of a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Demons, instead of , and you should replace Skale Venom with one of the other skill options below.

Skill Variants

Skale Venom and Well of Sorrow deal similar damage (Well of Sorrow is slightly ahead), but which performs better will vary from encounter to encounter. The main disadvantage of Well of Sorrow is that it requires your target to sit inside it for five seconds. The boonstrip present at the start of many encounters removes venom stacks, but they can be precast during split phases as long as your allies don't waste them attacking an invulnerable boss. The instant cast time of Skale Venom and fact that it has the same cooldown as Spider Venom also makes it much less disruptive to your rotation than other options. This is especially valuable for a boon build that relies on regularly entering Shadow Shroud.

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference and either could be replaced with:

• Caltrops - Has high theoretical DPS, but requires the target to remain inside the AoE for 10 seconds, and ramps slowerly. It also becomes less efficient in phased encounters, unlike some other 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.
• Well of Bounty should always be considered as an alternative to provide extra Might or Stability.

Template Code

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Specializations

• Pressure Striking is a little more DPS in cases where boonrip or Vigor aren't useful.
• For a ~4% DPS loss, you can take Consume Shadows to offer some extra healing/barrier to your subgroup.
• Traversing Dusk or Amplified Siphoning provide additional support for a minor DPS loss, particularly on the Dagger/Dagger build where Torment is less prevalent.

Equipment

Head
Ritualist

Shoulders
Ritualist

Chest
Ritualist

Hands
Ritualist

Legs
Ritualist

Feet
Ritualist

Backpiece
Ritualist

Accessory
Ritualist

Accessory
Ritualist

Amulet
Ritualist

Ring
Ritualist

Ring
Ritualist

Scepter
Ritualist

Sigil

Dagger
Ritualist

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• This setup provides ~42% boon duration.

Non-SotO Relics

Relic of the Aristocracy is the best relic for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure.

• Replace the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Demons with a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Torment in this case.

Healing Variant

For an ~8% DPS loss, you can increase the healing done by your wells.

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Plaguedoctor

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Scepter
Celestial

Sigil

Dagger
Celestial

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• If the extra +617 toughness from the celestial gear is interfering with tanking, you can lower it by swapping in plaguedoctor stats instead. Full plaguedoctor stats gear is a ~12% 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

Food

Utility

• if you have any doubts about your boon uptimes

Usage

Before the fight starts, select an allied player and Siphon them. When you use shroud skills, Alacrity will be applied around this player, so make sure it is someone you trust to be on stack (the tank is often a good choice). As long as you don't siphon from another player, this will remain your target throughout the fight. You may also lose target if the ally moves too far away (or dies).

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.

Opener

1. If possible, precast Prepare Thousand Needles (if using) such that you can immediately trigger it and place it a second time.
2. Well of Sorrow
3. Twilight Combo
4. 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!
5. Prepare Thousand Needles if it's available.
6. Enter Shadow Shroud to start applying Alacrity nice and early

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.

It can be very useful to throw in an extra use or two of Haunt Shot to pad your Alacrity.

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 the shroud loop.
• Use Siphon, Spider Venom, Skale Venom, Well of Sorrow and Thieves Guild off cooldown.
  • Triggering Thousand Needles (if using) 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.
• Weapon Swap, Enter Shadow Shroud and Exit Shadow Shroud will all trigger Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom. This has a 9-second internal cooldown, so if you are able to track this you can squeeze extra damage out of the rotation.
  • Otherwise just Weapon Swap off cooldown and hope for the best.

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

• Make sure you have enough Alacrity before exiting - maintaining boons is more important than your damage.

Video example

Video example (fractal relic)

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 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.
• You can mitigate certain mechanics through the Stability from Well of Bounty or Mind Shock, but you may wish to bring more boon duration if you need to delay it, to make up for the lower Alacrity provision.
• If using Consume Shadows:
  • 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.