Specter - Celestial Scepter 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 March 02, 2023 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A hybrid Scepter Specter build for WvW roaming, offering a strong mix of defense and offense. Plenty of condition pressure, boon spam, and even some burst damage.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Pistol

Sword/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Well of Sorrow - more Well synergy, mobility and AoE damage.

• Signet of Shadows - short CD instant condition application to either cover your damaging conditions or mitigate incoming damage through Weakness and Blind.

Heal

• Well of Gloom - not quite as good under pressure as Withdraw and it's strictly worse against conditions, but has better mobility on top of Well synergy including Alacrity from traits and some AoE healing in case you're in a group.

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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

Scepter
Celestial

Pistol
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Celestial

Dagger
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Rune

• Rune of Superior Rune of Orr - good stats and more health also means more Shadow Shroud.

• Rune of Superior Rune of Durability - very good defensive rune with extra boon duration.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Aristocracy - high damage option, consider weaving in a Shadow Sap before bursts to get the most out of this rune.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Traveler - budget option with okay stats and a passive movement speed boost.

Sigils

Sword/Dagger

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - consider replacing one of the S/D sigils with this if you're having trouble against condition specs (or you're not taking Antitoxin runes).

Infusions

• Vital WvW Infusions scale up not only your HP but also the Shadow Shroud bar. If you don't need the sustain or don't want to invest into these somewhat niche infusions, Malign or Mighty infusions also work just fine.

Consumables

Food

• - good stats and passive damage mitigation.

• - mainly a budget defensive food that provides more frequent access to dodging.

Utility

• or or .

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Specters gain access to their own version of Death Shroud called Enter Shadow Shroud. Mechanically they are the same, replacing your skill bar while active. Damage taken while in Shroud drains Shadow Force instead of HP.

• Using Siphon (Specter's version of Steal) 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 skill your Initiative should be back to full.

• Siphon removes boons when used on enemies and Dazes them right after, allowing it to interrupt targets even through Stability.

• 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.

• Offhand pistol's main purpose is to combo stealth with Black Powder and to provide a quick interrupt via Head Shot.

• Stealth stacking rotation:

1. Black Powder
2. Enter Shadow Shroud
3. Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows
4. Dawn's Repose Dawn's Repose

Damage

• Most of the weapon damage comes from spamming skill #3 on Scepter: Measured Shot + Endless Night.
  • 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.

• Siphon and Head Shot are great at procing Quickness from Sigil of Superior Sigil of Celerity which makes it much easier to land your Scepter #3 chain.

• If you're about to weapon swap from S/D consider using the Infiltrator's Strike ⇒ Measured Shot chain to stack Immobilize and proc Sigil of Superior Sigil of Geomancy in melee.

• On S/D you'll open with Infiltrator's Strike from range to leave an escape route with Infiltrator's Return. Teleporting in and out can help you avoid damage, cleanse conditions, and do a setup with Immobilize. Sometimes all you'll be doing on this set is use these skills + the autoattack if you want to play defensively.

• On Celestial builds the Flanking Strike (thief dual) + Larcenous Strike chain is more about softening up targets by stealing their boons boons with unblockable attacks (and evading incoming attacks in the process), but this chain is quite costly and very telegraphed and thus easy to avoid. Try baiting some dodges first, or use it when the enemy's blocking/channeling a skill. The Immobilize from Infiltrator's Strike could help with landing these skills too, even when used in the middle of it: port in, hit them with Flanking Strike, port out, and then back in for a Larcenous Strike.

• Skills 4-5 on S/D are rarely used, although Dancing Dagger is good for some ranged poking or killing Mesmer clones with the bounces.

• As for Shroud, skills 2 and 4 is where the damage comes from. The second skill is a ground targeted AoE which goes off after a short delay, Infiltrator's Strike or a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy proc might make it easier to land this right after entering Shroud. Skill 4 is a channeled point-blank AoE which is much easier to land. Shadowfall is great at setting up these slow Shroud skills too.
  • The delay of Shroud skill 2 makes it ideal for comboing with skill 4, as you can make them hit at the same time.

• Burst combo example:

1. Shadowfall
2. Grasping Shadows (Shroud 2)
3. Eternal Night (Shroud 4)
4. Dawn's Repose (Shroud 3)
5. Drop out of Shroud, keep spamming your Scepter 3

Sustain

• The main sources of condition removal are Shadowstep, Hungering Darkness, Withdraw and Infiltrator's Return (Sword #2's chain skill).

• Rune of Superior Rune of Antitoxin is a huge boost to your condi cleansing in general. In terms of gameplay this is very important on Sword as simply spamming Infiltrator's Strike ⇒ Infiltrator's Return (even without a target selected) could take care of your conditions without resorting to any CDs.

• Shadowstep is the only stun break in the build but it's a double stun break with condi cleansing on top. Try to use other methods for cleansing first in order to preserve this for handling incoming CC.

• Well of Bounty should more or less be used on CD for the Alacrity and the boons, but you could hold onto it a bit longer if you feel like you'll need the Stability soon. Try to stay inside this well because each second you're getting a new boon.

• The build has a passive life-saving proc: Shallow Grave. If you have enough Shadow Force you'll enter Shadow Shroud instead of dying after taking lethal damage. You could plan ahead with this and drop a Black Powder before the proc, allowing you to stack Stealth in Shroud and disengage safely.