Specter - Condition Scepter
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Mobility, Condition damage and Utility
Designed for: PvP Conquest
Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on February 11, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.
Overview
A highly versatile Carrion Specter condition build for PvP.
Skill Bar
Scepter/Pistol
Sword/Dagger
Utility
Skill Variants
Weapons
- Scepter/Dagger over Scepter/Pistol - swapping the offhand weapons around for a different Scepter dual skill is also viable. Don't forget to swap Sword/Dagger to Sword/Pistol.
Heal
- Alacrity and group utility in general. - bit more mobility,
Utility
can be replaced by:
- - great AoE condition burst (and a chance to contribute to fights you're not even present in, due to its range).
- - great area denial tool for securing kills and isolating enemy team members.
Template Code
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Specializations
Equipment
Scepter
Pistol
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Dagger
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Equipment Variants
Runes
- Quickness from Well skills. - a viable source of
- - better mobility when not running .
Sigils
- over - if you can afford to give up some cleansing more endurance.
Usage
Elite specialization basics
- Specters gain access to their own version of called . Mechanically they are the same, replacing your skill bar while active. Damage taken while in Shroud drains Shadow Force instead of HP.
- Using (Specter's version of ) and spending Initiative builds Shadow Force.
General
- Most of your Specters skills double as support skills. While your role is to kill targets, a good Specter also keeps an eye on allies and helps them in critical moments by granting them Barrier.
- Because of Shroud you can be a bit more reckless with spending Initiative as Shroud skills are free and by the time you've rotated through Shroud CDs your Initiative should be back to full.
- Dazes them right after, allowing it to interrupt targets even through Stability. removes boons when used on enemies and
- Most of the weapon damage comes from spamming skill #3 on Scepter:
- Scepter is the main weapon set of the build, the other one fills more of a utility/situational purpose. Sword/Dagger has good defensive skills, chase potential and damage.
+ .
- Every Well skills grants Alacrity. Wells are also great mobility tools both in and out of combat, and simply using them to get around the map faster has the added benefit of speeding up your skill recharge from the Alacrity.
- The main sources of condition cleansing are , , your on-swap Sword sigils and (Sword #2's chain skill).
- Offhand pistol's main purpose is to combo stealth with and to provide a quick interrupt via .
- Stealth stacking rotation:
- Grasping Shadows (Shroud 2)
- Dawn's Repose (Shroud 3)
Top Streamers
- Twitch: Sindrener
- Twitch: Azzardome
- Twitch: Pain
Ratings
It's still good, but it can be very map dependant where it works well on maps with a lot of verticality, like temple of the silent storm, where as it struggles to escape on maps like capricorn due to the nature of its mobility coming from multiple shorter range shadowsteps from wells. It still does well in small fights like 1v1 or 2v2, but compared to other thieves it is easily focused due to lower stealth access, only really having more than s/d daredevil. Barrier share and the buff that makes ally attacks inflict torment can easily cause a foe to be overwhelmed, especially since scepter 3 inflicts multiple cover condis that can make its poison and torment harder to cleanse. Not bad but not competitively viable outside of ranked, the only person still playing this in tournaments is Frae and even that is rare to see.
All I can say to the complainers: skill issue. There are better builds for damage and rotating but the supportive aspect of the build carries it. In 2v2s on sides especially the barrier sharing is invaluable, it's endless and almost free. You need to care for your team to get the full potential of this build which makes it more complex than your average thief build and I can see some people are having trouble adjusting.
I'm not an excellent pvp player and I certainly haven't exploited its full potential at all. But this spec seems really bad to me btw...
My first love of the expansion but good things never last. Shroud nerf slapped it hard and we never got anything to compensate. I still play it sometimes and it CAN be useful, it's not unviable but there are so many more OP things to play rn. I absolutely hate shortbow on thief and I loved that we could finally play without it. The support angle was very refreshing and a welcome addition to thief, the damage is kinda of good but the whole thing feels sluggish without quickness. Maybe instead of alacrity wells should give quickness? Or buff chrono rune.
Seems to be the #1 thief build after the last balance patch. Great damage, mobility and group utility.
this is the real "necro" with high speed good support help team . only specter can win blade 1v1
My favorite build atm - highly mobile, good damage, and strong utility. Really starts to shine once you get the hang of which shadowstep to use in a given situation and when to target allies with 3. I currently prefer Panic Strike since a surprise immobilize is nice for securing kills, and there might be an argument for pistol offhand with scepter (though the 3 is somewhat harder to use).
Comments
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