Antiquary - Hybrid Axetiquary - MetaBattle

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Expansions required: Visions of Eternity builds

Difficulty: Normal

This build was last updated on June 02, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.

Overview

An Antiquary build that makes extensive use of the Deadly Arts traitline to deal high hybrid damage with artifacts. Doesn't have the same access to stealth as most other Thief builds but has a lot of evasion to compensate.

Skill Bar

Stolen skill

Axe/Dagger

Utility

OptionalOptional

Skill Variants

Utility

Any of these can fill the empty slot depending on your preference or need:

致盲药粉 - A simple, consistent way to 潜行. 灵巧齐掷 is a fantastic stealth attack as it procs 扳回劣势 on each hit, making easy stealth access a welcome addition.
渗透纹章 - Simple mobility skill and stunbreak.
毒蝎钩索 - Good for locking down players without 稳固 or creating a window for 痛苦风暴 / 隐秘突袭. Cleanses 2 conditions with 技巧大师.
暗影庇护 - An extremely situational stealth option; against builds with strong AoE abilities it's a free invitation for them to kill you, but in scenarios where you already have some distance and need time to recover and reposition, it can be incredible. Worth noting that it heals downed allies as well.

Elite

These elite skills are all situationally viable:

匕首风暴 - A simple and powerful defensive pick that provides three seconds of evasion and a small cleanse with 技巧大师). Can deal surprising amounts of damage if used within 雾灼迫击炮.
斯克鼠乱斗 - Best value elite by far in extended fights, but requires very quick reactions and a deep understanding of artifacts as a whole to properly utilize. 守财藏家 gives allies near you the same boons it gives you.
石蜥毒液 - Great for when you're spending more time roaming/+1ing. Most importantly, it ensures 灵巧齐掷 gets through 圣盾. Best if taken with some sort of invisibility utility to maximize ganks.

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

None

Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Shortbow

Empty slot

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Amulet, Relic & Rune setups

There are a few different loadouts that are competitively viable.

The default loadout: 暴君项链 + 寻路者古物 + 魂武者符文. Has a bit of toughness with respect to a strike-damage heavy meta as to not get 100-0'd out of nowhere. Better in skirmishes than duels.
Vs. heavy condi/lifesteal: 巫师项链 + 雾灼古物 + 旅者符文. Features higher health, damage, and boon uptime for an advantage against condi builds. Condi builds are generally beefier with less evasion so Mistburn gets a lot of value from trait procs.
Duelist variant: 狂暴项链 + 残酷监察者古物 (Relic of the Cruel Overseer) + 魂武者符文. Looks to get additional value from its sustain through evasion from artifacts and toughness. You'll definitely want 斯克鼠横扫 for this variant, and for the empty utility 紧急翠玉护盾 is an excellent pick. Still okay in skirmishes when there isn't much projectile hate, but with poor 迅捷 uptime you're better off sitting on a side node.

Sigils

暴露法印 over 洁净法印 (on Shortbow Shortbow) - Can add a surprise ~5% to your burst. If you're more frequently swapping to shortbow to burst rather than escape, this can be a good option.
逃脱法印 over 洁净法印 on Shortbow Shortbow - Good for breaking roots in a pinch.

Usage

Basics

You'll be camping Axe Axe / Dagger Dagger 90% of the time, only swapping to Shortbow Shortbow to move around the map faster with 渗透暗箭 or supplement a burst with 集束炸弹s.
Use axe skills 1 and 2 (旋转利斧 and 剧毒连掷) to throw axes. These axes remain where they land for 10 seconds and can be recalled onto a target with your third skill, 痛苦风暴. Use these abilities until you have 5 or 6 axes, then use an artifact classified as "offensive" (e.g. 雾灼迫击炮) to give yourself 激怒 and 威能. After that, recall your axes with 痛苦风暴 for a huge burst of damage. Recalled axes deal full damage again while additionally applying 折磨, and also Immobilize Immobilize any targets hit by 5 or more axes. Comboing artifacts and axe recalls together like this is the main way the build does damage.
Axe's stealth skill, 灵巧齐掷, also leaves behind an axe. This is a very high value skill to hit.
痛苦风暴 gives you 1/2s of evasion when used and will shadowstep you to your target, making you especially hard to pin down in a fight.
Dagger Dagger's 5th skill 隐秘突袭 is incredibly good if you can land it. The unfortunate downside is that many artifacts hit multiple times which will break you out of 潜行.

Elite specialization basics

Antiquaries gain access to 斯克鼠横扫 which functions as their 顺手牵羊, benefiting from all traits that would affect it. Using it (with or without a target) will give you a set of artifacts. Your F2 will always be an offensive artifact, F3 is always a defensive artifact, and F4 will be a random one.
Artifacts have two classifications: "offensive" and "defensive". This classification determines which buffs you get with 守财藏家.
This build takes two traits that increase the number of artifacts you can use after pilfering: 丰产掠夺 and 灵感一现. Together, they allow you to use all three artifacts from a pilfered set, which results in a lot of boons, damage, and utility.
Using an artifact restores 1 initiative. "Offensive" artifacts give 威能 and 激怒 and should always be used before landing other skills if possible. "Defensive" artifacts tend to deal less damage but provide the defensive boons 保护 and 再生 and some other beneficial effect (e.g. an evade on 尊者巨锤).
Artifacts have an immediate effect and a lingering bonus effect. The lingering effects are applied when the skill finishes casting. They don't need to hit anything for you to get the lingering effects.

Artifacts

There are 8 available artifacts that you'll randomly get when you 斯克鼠横扫. Many are walls of text that feel daunting to read, but at first you can probably just spam them and have some moderate success. As you continue to play the spec, it'll make more and more sense when and where to use each artifact, as well as what their icons look like.
Here is a guide to each artifact. Each artifact has an active and lingering component which will be explained.
These are good for offense:
召唤氪族炮台 - stationary turret that deals massive damage via projectiles to the closest enemy. the lingering effect gives you a damage bonus against anything the turret hit.
金属军团吉他 - long cast that pulses damage in an AoE around you. if the channel finishes it stuns enemies and gives you one free stealth attack.
塑形者冲刺弹 - slide towards an area, dropping high damage bombs as you travel. bombs continue dropping every few seconds at your feet.
雾灼迫击炮 - shoots a projectile glob to an area that pulses strike damage and burning to those in the AoE. lingering effect makes your next two attacks burn the target.
These are good for both:
查克虫护盾 - instantly creates a projectile-destroying dome that pulses damage to enemies and barrier to allies. your next initiative spending ability refunds 50% of the cost.
尊者巨锤 - evades attacks before dealing high strike damage in an AoE.
- places a dancing decoy that taunts targets around it for 1 second. it also pulses might to nearby allies and reduces the cooldown of your next utility skill by 33%.
Save these for defense:
风裔日相水晶 - evade while dashing towards an area. blind and burn targets in an AoE where you arrive. cleanses 3 conditions when arriving, then your next 2 initiative-spending abilities cleanse another.

General

The TL;DR for the build's core gameplan is as follows: Enter fights with a full set of artifacts already available from an earlier 斯克鼠横扫 (F1), throwing out axes with its first two skills, then using an artifact (e.g. 召唤氪族炮台) before recalling the axes with 痛苦风暴. The result is 激怒 and 威能 from 守财藏家 and a huge burst of damage. From there, use all remaining artifacts and then 斯克鼠横扫 again and throw out the new artifacts for even more damage. Opening with stealth for axe's stealth attack 灵巧齐掷 increases the amount of burst even further thanks to 扳回劣势.
Use 斯克鼠横扫 (without a target) during downtime to fish for good sets of artifacts, or during combat on a target to interrupt a key ability. Since artifacts are such a big part of the build, deciding whether to use 斯克鼠横扫 immediately as it's up or waiting to interrupt an ability with it is a choice you'll regularly have to make.
Pay attention to any projectile hate that would eat your axes - reflect fields, magnetic aura, etc.. If possible, use non-projectile artifacts while waiting for the hate to go away, or drop your target and throw your axes at nothing so you can recall them later.
As axes require setup and a lot of initiative, it can be a good idea to swap to shortbow after landing a big 痛苦风暴 and spam 集束炸弹 instead than trying to set up another recall.

Defense

Remain at range while throwing axes, only entering melee with 痛苦风暴 when a good opportunity presents itself. Always keep in mind which artifacts you have and formulate a followup plan based on them. Some artifacts such as 尊者巨锤 deal high damage in addition to making you evade for the duration, making them excellent for countering attacks.
痛苦风暴 gives a small window of evasion on use. If possible, use the skill to both recall your axes and dodge a powerful attack.
Your cleanse is strong but limited. 紧急撤离, 先攻翻滚, and 匕首风暴 (if taken) all immediately cure 2 conditions (in addition to any already cleansed by these abilities) thanks to 技巧大师. Additionally, 风裔日相水晶 can cleanse you multiple times, but you won't always have access to it. Save it for the right moment.
Any artifact categorized as "defensive" will give 保护 and 再生 when used thanks to 守财藏家.

Advanced

Once you're comfortable with the main gameplay of Antiquary, you can start to play around your combo fields.
剧毒连掷's projectiles will occasionally act (20% chance) as a "projectile finisher". This gives them added effects depending on which combo field they pass through. The main ones are 雾灼迫击炮, which creates a fire field and adds 燃烧 to the axe, and 查克虫护盾, which causes the axe to cleanse a condition (granted you're in melee range of the target. it's weird, but if you're using 痛苦风暴 you can drop 查克虫护盾 as the axes are coming in to benefit from the finishers).
尊者巨锤 is a leap finisher. Use it through 查克虫护盾 to gain 光明光环, 雾灼迫击炮 for 火焰光环 (extra might and burning, nice), and even 暗影庇护 for 黑暗光环.
Lastly, your stealth attack, 灵巧齐掷, is a blast finisher. It's impractical to try and always combo this one with a field, but it's easy to use it with 查克虫护盾 when recalling axes for additional condition cleansing.