Harbinger - Celestial Elixir Roamer

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

Focused on: Hybrid damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on October 02, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Celestial Harbinger WvW build designed for Roaming.

Skill Bar

Pistol/Dagger

Staff

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Offhand Focus over Dagger - equally viable option. Spinal Shivers adds a great boonrip skill with high damage, but your condition cleansing and sustain's going to be a bit lower if you drop dagger.

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Specializations

Variants

• Twisted Medicine lets you share your elite's boons with allies, something that's worth considering if you're roaming with a group.

Specialization Variants

Taking Soul Reaping instead of Death Magic for more condition damage, better Life Force management and unblockable Staff Marks is also a viable choice. This however is a high risk/reward option, as your sustain is going to be considerably lower:

Equipment

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Staff
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Pistol
Celestial

Dagger
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Rune

• Rune of Superior Rune of Fireworks - passive mobility boost with good stats and a useful 6th proc. Rune of Superior Rune of the Traveler also works and it's a cheaper option.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Aristocracy - much better Might stacking and damage in general if you can afford to give up the extra cleansing of Antitoxin runes.

Consumables

Food

• - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

• - active damage mitigation.
  • - budget version

Utility

• or or

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

• Your elixirs apply boons to your allies so try to share it with them whenever possible. This is most important for Elixir of Ambition.

• 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.

Sustain

• Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to Plague Sending and Shrouded Removal.

• Removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks from Death Magic, reducing direct 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.

• Rune of Superior Rune of Antitoxin's 6th bonus is a massive boost to your cleansing in general.

• 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 provides much needed vertical mobility, allowing you to teleport to the highground if you need to escape or chase someone.

• 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.

• Putrid Mark and Elixir of Bliss are the closest things you have to a a mass cleanse.