Harbinger - Pistol Curses
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Condition damage and Boon removal
Designed for: PvP Conquest
Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 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
Template Code
[&DQgyOicaQC7nGqIA6xr6AC4BdwG9Ab0B6BqSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Specializations
Equipment
Pistol
Dagger
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Usage
To be added
Ratings
Tough spot for this build currently. Pre SOTO, started working on a very in depth guide for Harb builds based around the Pistol Curses build with some tweaks, as it was my favorite and most played build for the entirety of EOD. But it feels very underwhelming currently where there are so many melee burst builds that can blink on top of you from what feels like out of nowhere, projectile denial and people running in packs and with what seems to be pro-tier supports even in unranked matches.... Pistol Curses and variants used to be a super hard carry build. It's just not in a good place and it's hard to see it coming back to 4 or 5 stars without some significant changes to the meta, even in unranked. Can still be fun for sure, the build itself still flows nicely and feels smooth to play, and if you go up against a team of mostly lower skilled players, you'll wreck. Otherwise you're crossing your fingers and clenching your jaw.
Not what it once was, gets blown up in mere seconds in this burst meta, extremely vulnerable when Wurm/Spectal Walk/elite elixir are on CD. I'd rank this last among necro elite specs and arguably even power Harb is better now. Has a couple of redeeming qualities like the damage which is still great when playing with Soul Reaping, shroud mobility allows for skillful gameplay if you know how to use those skills properly. Weakness uptime is nice but more and more specs are getting Resistance for free which lets them ignore that. It's still playable but there are better options out there.
This build has it all for a dps. Great weakness spam. An escape button with wurm, projectile denial with Cloud, very long range with staff, and solid CC. Excellent ability to scale damage from single target (pistol) to staff (aoe). Fantastic condi build during the condi build drought. EDIT: Don't play if enemies have core guardian or tempest.
Honestly I don't consider this build to be as meta as other people say. Reaper feels a little stronger to me. I Think maybe it's easy to do though since mostly just using auto attacks and pistol/shroud 2 and occasionally throwing your potions at people
Seriously, is it the best, is it the most powerful? Probably not. But using condi removal when condi is supa pop right now is awesome. As well as regen casting acting as an opening or upkeep. Then you spike condi right back. I did put signet of spite. since i act almost like a tank / gw1 necro bomber then get out with spectral or my worm bud - I like a little more power. Also, like sending the spite as active when we target or if i need to spam/overwhelming the area while being attacked.
High damage, decent defense and your sheer presence makes others fear you. If you get popping off your target is going to fold fast, and that's the name of your game. Sheer overwhelming force.
Remember your shroud here doesn't cover your HP so you're taking all that damage to your face.
Great build with good pressure and survivability if played well. Virtually unbeatable if you have no condition cures. I play this as Pistol/Dagger, Scepter/Focus and it works well. I'm currently running Blood Magic instead of SR which might be worth a shot if you are struggling with sustain. Give it a go!
The fun part about this build, is that it can be overwhelming to your opponent to fight if you play it aggressively. Good crowd controls, if you utilize the utilities correctly you can be very mobile. High damage, carrion amulet is a great choice since harbinger doesn't have a second HP bar. I recommend this to anybody, especially if you're used to playing support classes. This is the glassy spec you need, to break you out of that defensive support class mentality, and into the world of dps. Overall it's a good option for anyone to pick up. :)
Comments
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