Antiquary - Power Antiquary open world - MetaBattle

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

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required: Visions of Eternity builds Secrets of the Obscure builds

Difficulty: Hard

This build was last updated on April 04, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.

Overview

Power antiquary build for open world. Assisted by their helpful skritt helpers, antiquaries 斯克鼠横扫 to gain lots of new skills to turn the fight in their favor, should luck be on their side. They also provide themselves and nearby allies with permanent 敏捷.

We do not recommed this build if you hate RNG, as it is present on the artefacts that you plunder, the artefacts you get from 斯克鼠乱斗, and the chance to backfire on your utility skills. Additionally, this build isn't easy to play. On top of the normal Spear Spear minigame with its unique skill chains, you also need to juggle your artefacts and must learn what each one does.

Template Code

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Skill Bar

Stolen skill

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

Spear Spear requires Janthir Wilds. If you don't have access to spear, replace it with dagger+dagger.
Rifle Rifle requires Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure. If you don't have access to rifle or you'd rather use another option, replace it with pistol+pistol.

Skill variants

Backfire

Antiquary healing and utility skills can be used again while they are on cooldown, but doing so may trigger a backfire and block skill usage until it cools down. Generally speaking, backfires are bad.

Heal Skill

恶意纹章 provides good passive healing.

抗毒药酒 - weak healing but removes conditions. Heals for more, and removes more conditions, when it backfires.

Utility skills

石峰会加农炮 is great for damage, never replace it. If it backfires, get away from the explosion, it deals significant damage and can get you killed. 战斗冲动 is an offensive stun break with great boons and low cooldown. Can be replaced if needed. 卡纳克硬币投掷 gives initiative and removes conditions. If used while on cooldown and it backfires, you may instead not regain initiative and have your boons converted to conditions. Other options you can consider are:

暗影疾步 - amazing mobility plus stunbreak and condi cleanse.
暗影庇护 - long duration of stealth for channelling Hero Challenges.
敏捷纹章 - if conditions are a problem, though its passive precision is not needed due to 敏锐观察.
毒蝎钩索 - very situational. Extremely good for pulling the bomb in Battle in Tarir south lane meta event.

Elite Skill

斯克鼠乱斗 is a great source of damage through artefacts. Although the skill cannot backfire, you have to be careful since the skritt have a chance to prank you and give you a deadly 斯克鼠易爆弹. Do not use this artefact. Other options can be considered.

匕首风暴 - a 4 second evade.
石蜥毒液 - strong crowd control if there are allies nearby.
同仇敌忾 - good damage skill

Specializations

Variants

重生精准 - sacrifices a small amount of damage for sustain. Great option for solo open world.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats. This set uses gear similar to Daredevil - Power DPS, making it excellent for general PVE.

Head

Berserker

Shoulders

Berserker

Chest

Berserker

Hands

Berserker

Legs

Berserker

Feet

Berserker

Backpiece

Berserker

Accessory

Berserker

Accessory

Berserker

Amulet

Assassin

Ring

Berserker

Ring

Berserker

Spear

Berserker

Empty slot

Sigil

Rifle

Berserker

Empty slot

Sigil

Rune

Relic

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Nika" armor. Then search for the weapons you want to use: "Exterminator" rifle, "Usoku's Needle" dagger, "Shattered Short Bow" shortbow. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.

For Relic alternatives at the expense of quickness generation, you can consider 潜行者古物 which is easier to activate, or 萨奇洛斯古物 to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain.
For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

Defense

Farming

Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
生日爆破枪 / 令人愉快的生日蛋糕大餐
薄荷怪异莓棒
锐磨颅骨 (and variants)

Usage

Artefacts

The antiquary's profession mechanic are artefacts, which occupy the F2, F3, and F4 slots (you gain a third artefact due to 丰产掠夺). If needed, rebind these keys to something you can press with ease. You gain artefacts by using 斯克鼠横扫 or 斯克鼠乱斗. The F2 artefact will always be an offensive one, the F3 artefact will always be a defensive one, and the F4 is fully random. Note that 斯克鼠乱斗 might backfire and give you a 斯克鼠易爆弹 instead, which deals huge damage to yourself.

Damage

Spear

Spear works with a combo mechanic of lead attack + follow up + finisher. Engage enemies with a 2,3,2 combo: 螳螂钉刺 + 吸血劈砍 + 陨落蜘蛛. Now that you have finished a combo, you can start the next one with 杂念投掷 for a damage buff. Continue as normal with 吸血劈砍+ 陨落蜘蛛. You can repeat this 4,3,2 combo once before your initiative runs low, unless you regain some with 卡纳克硬币投掷 or 进取贵族. Note that Distracting Throw has to be used within a 2~ second window of your previous combo for it to count as a combo starter lead attack and give its damage bonus. This means you can use an artifact in between your combos, but don't take too long or the combo chain will reset.

When low on initiative, you need to use the stealth attack 苍白突袭 to recover some. This can be done by using the guitar artefact, or by ending the spear combo with skill 3 to enter stealth, for example 杂念投掷 + 缠藤毒蛇 + 碎裂突袭. After the stealth attack, continue with 螳螂钉刺.

Due to 海盗女王古物, inflicting crowd control generates personal 急速. You can maintain quickness with crowd control from your artefacts and 杂念投掷, though note this skill only inflicts crowd control if the enemy is already movement impaired. If you'd like to start fights with quickness, the best way to do so is to use End of Dragons' mastery for Jade Tech Offensive Protocol.

Example

You can weave your 斯克鼠横扫 and arterfacts inbetween these skills. Doing so gives you initiative thanks to 进取贵族.

Rifle

Rifle should only be used when ranged damage is needed. It has decent burst with 三弹爆发. You can replenish initiative with 卡纳克硬币投掷. If you get the guitar artefact, you can also use the stealth skill for good damage. If using Action Camera, they keybind "Look Behind" can be used while casting 死亡撤退 to quickly and seamlessly jump forward. If you don't use action camera, you will have to stop running, turn your character, cast the skill, turn the character again, and resume running. The keybind "About Face" can help with that.Use 狙击手掩体 to destroy dangerous projectile attacks like the volley of arrows from the Tengu Hero Point in Auric Basin. 死亡撤退 deals damage before teleporting, if you are in 潜行, it will reveal you. Most of your rifle bullets pierce their targets. When fighting groups of enemies, try to line them up to strike them all.

Artefacts

Aside from their on-cast effects, using an artefact provides a lingering buff for a few seconds, improved by 谨慎托管. While artefacts can be ranked by the amount of damage they do, in open world one must also consider their deffensive utility or the buffs they provide. As such, you should adapt to the situation at hand to decide which artefact to use. If damage is the only concern and utility is not needed, artefacts rank as follows:

召唤氪族炮台
塑形者冲刺弹 (stay near the enemy to drop the bombs from the lingering buff on them)
风裔日相水晶 (use it again if you hit an enemy)
雾灼迫击炮
金属军团吉他
查克虫护盾

Remember to adapt to your current fight. For example, if you are fighting an enemy that shoots dangerous projectiles, Chak Shield becomes a lot better; if your enemy inflicts many conditions, the condition cleanse from Zephyrite Sun Crystal makes it a better choice, etc. Using artefacts also gives you and nearby allies boons thanks to 守财藏家, most notably 敏捷. 超级专注法印 is required, and 灵魂糕点 can help if needed.

Notes

Try to stay above 50% health to benefit from 敏锐观察 and 双牙撕咬.
When possible, try to attack from behind to benefit from 双牙撕咬. This isn't required against bosses or other enemies with defiance bars, the trait is always active against them.

Defense

Some of your artefacts heal, or evade, or let you dash to safety, or block projectiles. Review your options.
重生精准 provides some sustain, especially since this build has permanent 激怒. It stacks with 萨奇洛斯古物.
Remember that you can always kill enemies with 单兵射击 while running away, and they won't even come close to you.

Crowd Control

金属军团吉他 or
杂念投掷 (it only dazes if the enemy already had a movement impairing condition, for example by using it two times in a row since the skill does Cripple)
If you need more crowd control you can use 石蜥毒液, or 毒蝎钩索, or 准备陷阱.