Harbinger - Pistol Curses

• Harbinger - Celestial Elixir Roamer - WvW version of the build.

• Twitch: Bel

Elite specialization basics

• 先驱帷幕 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

• Role: follow the teamfight, stay with the support if you have one.

• Don't spam your marks on the ground out of combat - they are easy to spot and a single dodge from the enemy can get rid of them. Skills 4-5 are also valuable defensive cooldowns and you don't want to risk not having them for the next fight. There are exceptions of course, 鲜血印记 (because it's not a key skill and has a low CD) or even 凛冬印记 can be used a bit more freely. For example place them at an entrance or under yourself to help your team spot 潜行ed enemy movements or force a dodge at the start of the fight. Or if you see an enemy with teleport skills approaching you could place 夺魂印记 right before they jump you to ruin their burst.

• Entering Shroud triggers 衰弱帷幕. If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud for the 虚弱 and boon rip as a defensive measure and even proc 传播瘟疫 for some cleansing and additional counter-pressure.

• 腐蚀毒云 is one of the more versatile skills in the build:

  • The healing and endurance reduction from 中毒 and 虚弱 is great for wearing down enemy bunkers/supports.
  • Could be used defensively for AoE projectile denial, helping you and your teams survive pressure, even shutting down elites such as 巫妖形态.
  • It's unblockable and the 中毒 does solid damage on its own.

• Entering 先驱帷幕 gives you life force, so start dropping in/out of shroud the moment the game starts (before you'd even leave spawn) and keep doing it even out of combat for the rest of the match for free LF (and mobility from skills 3-4).

Shroud burst combo example:

1. to get into melee range.
2. to deliver damage while avoiding incoming attacks and dazing the target, making it harder for them to prevent the next step of the chain. It's also yet another mobility skill in case you were still not in melee range.
3. for CC.
4. at point-blank range for maximum effectiveness.
5. spam.

Pistol burst combo example:

1. could serve as an opener as it has a very low cast time and doesn't really require setup, but it could also be used after Vile Blast.
2. to set up Oppressive Collapse (OC), which has a much more visible animation and would be harder to land. Note: OC in general works best against slowed/stunned targets - the AoE ring spawns under your target the moment you press OC, so enemies with or mobility skills could even escape the ring before the skill finishes. If they manage to leave the ring in time they'll avoid the CC.

Sustain

• Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to and (Death Magic-only).

• When playing with Death Magic, removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks, reducing strike damage taken. At 25+ stacks is going to bump your damage reduction even higher.

• grants Carapace even if the condition was removed through other means, like .

• (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 ⇒ when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ (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!

• should be placed well before entering combat, preferably at a spot where your enemies can't reach it easily. Wurm provides you with an escape route and makes it easier to travel around the map in general. Last but not least, teleporting to the wurm with grants 10% life force, which means you could consider using the teleport before even leaving spawn at the start of a game in order to start off with some LF.

• Harbinger has better mobility than the average Necromancer build which could prove useful when it comes to surviving damage. and are both great for building (or closing) gaps.

• Skill #4 on both weapon sets is a condition transfer (when playing with Dagger offhand): and .

Variants

• 加速酝酿 could boost your sustain by adding several new 保护 sources to the build.

Specialization Variants

Soul Reaping can replace Death Magic if you want to play a more high risk/reward version of the build:

Variants

• 灵魂印记 makes your Staff marks unblockable but weakens your shroud auto spam.

Skill Variants

Utility:

Always keep 鬼灵影步 but the other 2 slots are more flexible. Other viable options include:

• 增益腐蚀 - unblockable single target boon corruption that's hard to avoid, great for bursting targets without any other setup. It's even good for defensive purposes while under pressure - quickly corrupting 稳固 and 威能 into 恐惧 and 虚弱 for instance could save you.

• 腐化法池 - less bursty than 增益腐蚀 but it's AoE.

• 黑暗法池 - works both as a defensive and offensive AoE skill.

• 无知试剂 - low CD stunbreak + damage mitigation and defense against soft-CC like 目盲 spam or 定身.

• 鬼灵圆环 - area denial that can save your life or cage in enemies to set up kills.

• 腐蚀毒云 - excellent anti-projectile skill which also brings 中毒 and 虚弱 spam to the table, further mitigating damage as well as enemy healing.

Weapons

Torch can be replaced by either of the following weapons:

• Offhand Dagger - defensive pick with condition transfer and some damage mitigation via 目盲 and 虚弱.

• Offhand Sword - ranged CC and 虚弱.

Equipment Variants

Runes and sigils

• With the Soul Reaping variant 巴萨泽符文 and 焚烧法印 on Pistol/Dagger also become viable options because of 德姆火焰 synergy.

Relics

• 阿奇姆古物 - improves condition variety on your bursts if you can proc it consistently with CC.

• 解毒古物 offers better cleansing at the expense of damage.

• 瓦思古物 - might offer you more damage than Demon Queen if you're also using utility elixirs, but losing out on the extra healing reduction of Demon Queen could ultimately make it harder for you to kill high sustain bunker and support builds.