The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Healing and Support
Designed for: Raids and Fractals
Expansions required:
Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on July 25, 2024 and is up to date for the June 25, 2024 patch.
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Skill Bar
- 2.1 Weapon Variants
- 2.2 Skill Variants
- 3 Template Code
- 4 Specializations
- 5 Equipment
- 5.1 Condi Variant
- 6 Consumables
- 7 Usage
- 7.1 Alacrity
- 7.2 Other Boons
- 7.3 Healing
- 7.4 Weapons
- 7.4.1 Scepter/Pistol
- 7.4.2 Sword/Pistol
- 7.5 CC
Overview
A boon support healer build for Specter. Provides permanent Alacrity,
Fury, 25
Might,
Protection (mostly),
Regeneration,
Swiftness and
Vigor. Also provides high uptimes of
Resistance and
Stability.
Specter can provide a very wide range of boons and an excellent mixture of direct healing and Barrier. Further, its tether mechanic allows it to provide
Alacrity at 1200 range, making it excellent at handling mechanics.
Unfortunately, unlocking this build's maximum potential involves using ally-targeted weapon skills. Very few builds use this mechanic, so this can feel quite unnatural and will likely involve setting new keybinds.
This build has a lot of overlap with the healing variant of the Condi Boon Support, so you can mix and match options between these to suit your group.
Skill Bar
Scepter/Pistol
Sword/Pistol
Utility
Weapon Variants
- Offhand Dagger can be used in the Scepter set for the hybrid damage build.
Skill Variants
Well of Bounty is necessary as your primary source of
Regeneration, but the other two skills can be swapped out:
Blinding Powder is the easiest way to high
Protection uptime, but using it stealths allies. This will mess with deadeyes in your group and so should be avoided if they are present.
Well of Silence heals thanks to its shadowstep, offers CC and is a rare source of condi cleanse.
Other alternatives include:
Shadow Refuge - The most potent utility skill for healing. Comes with the same caveats as
Blinding Powder, and offers worse
Protection uptime, but could replace
Well of Silence on encounters without condi cleanse.
- For more frequent breakbars, you may find
Basilisk Venom valuable.
Template Code
[&DQUUFSwnRz8VGyQPNAE0AQgbWAEHG1cBERsOAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Copy Template Code
Specializations
Quick Pockets is a good option for more initiative.
Second Opinion on encounters where high incoming damage makes Shadow Force harder to maintain, so
Consume Shadows will be much weaker. In such cases, you should also use the
Plaguedoctor stats variant.
Equipment
Harrier stats gear is used for maximum healing power and boon duration. On encounters with high incoming damage, then you may require the extra Shadow Force that comes from higher vitality, making the
Plaguedoctor stats variant below stronger.
Head
Harrier
Shoulders
Harrier
Chest
Harrier
Hands
Harrier
Legs
Harrier
Feet
Harrier
Backpiece
Harrier
Accessory
Harrier
Accessory
Harrier
Amulet
Harrier
Ring
Harrier
Ring
Harrier
Scepter
Harrier
Pistol
Harrier
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Harrier
Sigil
- The
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Transference can be replaced with a
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Paralyzation if you want to provide more CC.
- If tanking, swap in as many
Giver stats or
Minstrel stats pieces as necessary.
Condi Variant
You can swap in Plaguedoctor stats for a massive damage boost and almost no loss of healing, but the boon duration is significantly lower - you want to make sure it's at least 60% or you might as well be running the healing variant of the DPS alacrity build.
Head
Plaguedoctor
Shoulders
Plaguedoctor
Chest
Plaguedoctor
Hands
Plaguedoctor
Legs
Plaguedoctor
Feet
Plaguedoctor
Backpiece
Plaguedoctor
Accessory
Plaguedoctor
Accessory
Plaguedoctor
Amulet
Plaguedoctor
Ring
Plaguedoctor
Ring
Plaguedoctor
Scepter
Plaguedoctor
Dagger
Plaguedoctor
Sigil
Sigil
Pistol
Plaguedoctor
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic
- The
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Transference on Pistol can be replaced with a
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Paralyzation if you want to provide more CC.
- If tanking, swap in as many
Giver stats or
Minstrel stats pieces as necessary.
Consumables
Food
- or ascended versions
Utility
Usage
Players wishing for more information can find an exceedingly detailed guide here. Note that there are some small differences in build recommendations.
Alacrity
Thanks to the Shadestep trait, every shroud skill you use provides AoE around your tethered target. This means that Specter is capable of providing
Alacrity at 1200 range, making it very effective at handling mechanics. The tether is randomly applied to an ally within range whenever you
Enter Shadow Shroud, and will remain on that ally until you are 1200 units away from each other. A new target for the tether can be manually selected by targeting an ally and using
Siphon on them. This is very useful to do before the fight starts, as you ideally want to use
Siphon on enemies for the Shadow Force generation during combat.
Other Boons
Fury, Might and Vigor
100% uptime of these boons are provided by Well of Bounty and
Siphon (with the
Thrill of the Crime and
Bountiful Theft traits).
Protection
Your main source of Protection is from the combination of
Blinding Powder and
Cover of Shadow, and topped up with ally-targeted
Shadow Sap.
If stealthing allies is a problem, then Relic of the Zephyrite can be used to provide additional uptime.
Regeneration
Your main source of Regeneration is
Well of Bounty, and topped up with ally-targeted
Endless Night or
Shadowsquall.
Stability
Well of Bounty and
Mind Shock (with
Shadestep) provide AoE
Stability. These are both used in your normal rotation, so encounter knowledge is key for ensuring you can provide it when needed.
Healing
Practically everything you do provides some measure of Barrier or healing:
Shadow Savior and
Traversing Dusk heal on every shadowstep, which applies to all your wells,
Measured Shot (Sceptre/Pistol) and
Infiltrator's Strike ⇒
Infiltrator's Return (Sword).
Merciful Ambush and
Panaku's Ambition heals and provides
Barrier to allies that you
Stealth.
- Thanks to
Shadestep, all your Shadow Shroud skills heal allies near your tethered target.
- If using
Consume Shadows, your remaining Shadow Force is converted into healing (and overhealing into
Barrier) when you
Exit Shadow Shroud.
Well of Gloom has inherent healing, plus the shadowstep healing, plus some
Barrier for good measure via
Shielding Restoration.
Measured Shot and
Endless Night (Sword/Pistol) provide healing and barrier, respectively, to allies they target.
Shadow Sap (Sceptre),
Twilight Combo (Sceptre/Dagger) and your Sceptre autoattack also provide a small amount of
Barrier when targetting allies.
Weapons
The two weapons have different playstyles:
Scepter
Via its allied-targeted abilities, Scepter fills in the gaps in uptime of your key boons, namely Protection with
Shadow Sap and
Regeneration with
Measured Shot ⇒
Endless Night. During downtime you can also autoattack an ally to provide AoE
Barrier.
If using scepter, it is strongly recommended to have some method for quickly targetting allies: Set/Take Personal Target, Nearest/Next/Previous Ally, or Ally Targeting Mode in the options will all allow this. Go for whichever you find most convenient.
Sword
Sword can be swapped too as needed for burst healing. On this set you provide heals by spamming Infiltrator's Strike and
Infiltrator's Return to repeatedly trigger
Shadow Savior and
Traversing Dusk.
Scepter/Pistol
Before the encounter starts, it can be very helpful to select and ally and Siphon them. This will mark them as the target of your tether and all the boons provided by
Shadestep will pulse around that player as long as they remain within range (or until you target another player manually with
Siphon). Ideally this will be a player that can be relied upon to be on the stack. If you do not target a specific player, a random one will be picked when you
Enter Shadow Shroud.
Opener
This opener is just one possibility. Alacrity can usually be delayed at the start of an encounter, allowing you to spend initiative to provide other boons first.
Well of Bounty - Opens with a burst of boons, and drops a combo field for triggering
Relic of Karakosa
Blinding Powder
Enter Shadow Shroud
Mind Shock - Cast first so that the blast hits within the duration of the combo field. This step can be skipped or moved if the CC or
Stability will be needed shortly, and it won't be off cooldown every loop.
Grasping Shadows
Eternal Night
Dawn's Repose
Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
Grasping Shadows
Exit Shadow Shroud - we stay in shroud just long enough to gain five stacks of
Consume Shadows
- Target an ally
Measured Shot ⇒
Endless Night
- Spam all your remaining initiative on allied-targeted
Shadow Sap
- Use
Well of Bounty off cooldown (you can delay slightly if needed for
Stability).
- Other wells can be used situationally, but it is handy to use one just before entering shroud.
- Use
Blinding Powder off cooldown. Outside of the opener, follow it up with an ally-targeted
Shadowsquall to maintain
Regeneration.
- Use
Siphon off cooldown to provide AoE boons and maintain Shadow Force. If necessary, use the ally-targeted version to change your tether target.
- Make sure to use at least five skills (including autoattacks) each time you enter shroud. There's no set rotation, but ideally you should exit before your initiative fills up.
- Spend all your initative on scepter skills when outside of shroud. In general, this will be on
Shadow Sap as you'll need to use this on allies to maintain
Protection.
Measured Shot ⇒
Endless Night can be used to provide direct healing to allies that need it.
- You have CC all over the place, but you can save some if there is an upcoming defiance bar you wish to delete.
Sword/Pistol
Sword/Pistol doesn't have a fixed rotation. As you don't need to be concerned with Barrier management, you can just use
Siphon, wells, and
Enter Shadow Shroud as they come off cooldown while spending your initative on spamming and
Infiltrator's Strike and
Infiltrator's Return.
CC
The majority of your CC is from Daze and
Stun, making a
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Paralyzation especially effective (it affects daze as well).
Siphon is a 1s
Daze when targeting enemies.
Well of Silence is a 2s
Daze.
Shadowfall pulls three times, for a total of 450 Defiance Break (contrary to the tooltip).
Basilisk Venom can provide 150 Defiance Break per target you hit, for a maximum potential of 750 on a shorter cooldown, though the CC can be wasted by allies hitting the wrong target.
Dawn's Repose inflicts 1s of
Fear.
Mind Shock is a 1.5s
Stun.
Head Shot is a 2s
Daze, and can be spammed as long as you have initiative.