Specter - A/D Rending Shade

This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.

Focused on: Mobility, Condition damage and Utility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on January 17, 2025.

Overview

A tanky, slippery, and generally versatile Specter build that aims to land a large number of

Cunning Salvo

's to both generate initiative and proc

Rending Shade

, ideally stealing Stability to enable CC to land for

Pressure Striking

. With strong sustain and mobility it can duel, +1 or teamfight relatively well.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Dagger/Pistol

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Well of Gloom
  - higher mobility, trait synergy and group utility, but worse access to stealth and less condition cleansing.

Utility

Viable utility choices (for skills that aren't

Shadowstep

):

• Infiltrator's Signet
  - low cooldown stunbreak (28s) which procs a number of traits with its shadowstep. Great for landing
  Cloak and Dagger
  , overall a good defensive & offensive pick.

• Blinding Powder
  - easy access to stealth, but lacks the mobility given by other available skills. Great for getting a
  Cunning Salvo
  out in a pinch. The most fragile and linear stunbreak.

• Roll for Initiative
  - a stunbreak with evasion. Gives you 4 initiative as well upon use, which is nearly enough for another
  Harrowing Storm
  or
  Cloak and Dagger
  . Somewhat difficult to use properly as stunbreaking with it prevents you from going in any direction but backwards, which is counterproductive if you need to
  Cloak and Dagger
  .

• Shadow Portal
  - anti-roam, can teleport you and an ally extremely far (and causes you to arrive with stealth). Stunbreak.

• Seal Area
  - good for teamfights or against projectile-heavy duelists. Somewhat low cooldown for what it does.

• Well of Bounty
  - another good pick for teamfights, gives a number of helpful boons to yourself and any nearby allies. lots of trait synergies.

• Scorpion Wire
  - if you're up against low amounts of projectile hate and stability, this can be excellent at proccing
  Pressure Striking
  and being generally annoying.

Elite

Viable elite choices:

• Dagger Storm
  - the best defensive option. 90s cooldown, but allows you to dodge burst or correct mistakes. Pick this if you intend to duel a lot.

• Shadowfall
  - the teamfight/lockdown elite. Thanks to
  Traversing Dusk
  this ability will consistently land and generally lead to the death of anyone who doesn't have stability or a stunbreak. Remove boons first with
  Rending Shade
  and lock them down with this elite. Like all Specter wells, shadowstepping with a skill like
  Harrowing Storm
  or
  Shadowstep
  during the cast will extend its range.

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Specializations

Variants

• is strong against low-resistance builds, mostly for its Cripple application.
• Hidden Thief
  is a strong pick vs. power builds in duels or if you are confident in dodging condi builds.

Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

Relic of Peitha

is very, very strong since the build is constantly shadowstepping. However it can be swapped out for better utility:

• Relic of Cerus
  - boon corruption for
  Rending Shade
  , great synergy with
  Shadowfall
  , generally a monster in teamfights. Weaker in skirmishes and duels.

• Relic of the Citadel
  - a lot of fun and solid cover paired with
  Dagger Storm
  .

Runes

• Rune of the Trapper
  - better damage, lower mobility.
  Meld with Shadows
  and shadowsteps can help offset the lack of mobility.

Sigils

• Sigil of Escape
  over
  Sigil of Cleansing
  - if you need a more specific type of cleanse.

Usage

Basics

• Use
  Spinning Axe
  ,
  Venomous Volley
  , and
  Cunning Salvo
  until you have 5 or 6 axes, then recall them with
  Harrowing Storm
  . Axes recalled deal Torment damage, so hitting enemies with the recall will deal substantially more damage than normal.

• Use
  Cloak and Dagger
  once Revealed falls off to enter Stealth. Use
  Cunning Salvo
  before stealth fades.

• Use
  Siphon
  to daze targets who do not have Stability.

• Watch your target's buffs; if they have Magnetic Aura, 24px Distortion or some other reflect, stop attacking; reflected/blocked/evaded projectiles don't count as "your" axes for the sake of recalling them later.

• Try to time your
  Harrowing Storm
  to dodge an enemy's big attack; it provides 1/2s of evasion.

• When the opportunity presents itself (e.g. you are low on initiative, just used
  Harrowing Storm
  , or you want to burst),
  Enter Shadow Shroud
  .

Elite specialization basics

• Specters gain access to their own version of
  Death Shroud
  called
  Enter Shadow Shroud
  , at the cost of less total initiative. Mechanically they are the same, replacing your skill bar while active. Damage taken while in Shroud drains Shadow Force instead of HP. You lose access to your utility skills while in shroud.

• Using
  Siphon
  (Specter's version of
  Steal
  ) and spending Initiative builds Shadow Force. In this build, shadowstepping will also build Shadow Force thanks to
  Traversing Dusk
  .

• Opening or exiting Shadow Shroud with
  Mind Shock
  will cover you in a chaotic situation since it gives 3 stacks of Stability.
• Landing
  Eternal Night
  's Chill will help land shroud skills 2 and 3 (
  Grasping Shadows
  ,
  Dawn's Repose
  ), which can otherwise be walked out of due to their delay and small AoE radius.
• So generally, 5 > 4 > 2 > 3.
• Don't underestimate
  Haunt Shot
  as a filler; it has good range and damage, and is great to use while regenerating initiative.

• Shadow Shroud can be used to stack Stealth.
• Grasping Shadows
  (Shroud 2) is a delayed blast finisher.
• Dawn's Repose
  (Shroud 3) is a leap finisher.
• use
  Black Powder
  , shroud 2 & 3, leave shroud and
  Heartseeker
  for a healthy duration of Stealth without using all of your initiative.

General

• Damage is primarily Torment, dealt with recalled axes (
  Harrowing Storm
  ),
  Relic of Peitha
  , interrupts with
  Pressure Striking
  , and the Shroud abilities 2 & 4 (
  Grasping Shadows
  &
  Eternal Night
  respectively, which hit hard thanks to
  Sigil of Intelligence
  ).
  • Axe/Dagger is the main weapon set of the build, the other is for stealth via
    Black Powder
    and
    Heartseeker
    . Off-hand pistol also has
    Head Shot
    , which, with proper timing, can be used to deal a good bit of damage with
    Pressure Striking
    .

• Stealth between points with
  Black Powder
  and a leap finisher (e.g.
  Heartseeker
  ) to conceal your movement and also stack
  Leeching Venoms
  . The
  Spider Venom
  stacks from this trait don't have an upper limit, so you should be going in and out of stealth frequently.

• Axes remain even if they don't hit anything, so long as they weren't dodged, evaded, or invuln'd. Keep throwing them during downtime.

• Shadowfall
  's range can be extended by using a shadowstep in the middle of the cast. The Well will spawn underneath you after the shadowstep. This can be used with
  Harrowing Storm
  ,
  Shadowstep
  ,
  Infiltrator's Signet
  ...

• The sources of condition cleansing are
  Hide in Shadows
  ,
  Shadow's Embrace
  ,
  Grasping Shadows
  , your on-swap weapon sigils, and if taken,
  Well of Silence
  .

Defense

• Thanks to Shadow Shroud, Specters can take more of a beating than a normal Thief.

• Panaku's Ambition
  gives a strong barrier whenever you stealth, and as such landing
  Cloak and Dagger
  is extremely important to the longevity of the Specter.

• Grasping Shadows
  >
  Exit Shadow Shroud
  > weapon swap >
  Black Powder
  works if performed quickly.

That said, this build lacks Resolution and Protection outside of stolen boons from

Rending Shade

.

• Avoid throwing
  Cunning Salvo
  if you need to quickly restealth. Normally you will not be revealed if you attack immediately after leaving stealth, but ambush skills still do, even if they land while you are visible.

• When in doubt, shadowstep out!