User:Masel/Builds/Harbinger

Pistol + Torch Condition Harbinger

Build Rating (Subjective)

Criterion	Rating
Burst Damage	3/5
Sustained Damage	5/5
Utility Options	5/5
Survivability	5/5
Difficulty	2/5

Condition  Harbinger is a very strong choice for instanced content, especially with a simplified rotation. It's also a great pick for solo gameplay, as it can provide itself with good amounts of many essential boons ( Quickness,  Protection,  Fury and  Might) and substantial amounts of self-healing. Through   Elixir of Ambition,  Deathly Haste and  Twisted Medicine, it can also be adjusted to provide  Quickness and a partial uptime on all(!) other boons easily, without larger adjustments to gear.

Link to the Build on the Editor

Playstyle & Skills

Skill Type	Skills
Shroud Skills
Pistol + Torch Skills
Utility Skills

  Harbinger Shroud

• Akin to all Necromancers,  Harbinger gains Life force from nearby deaths or by using skills that directly grant it.
• The shroud mechanic on  Harbinger differs from   Reaper's Shroud and   Death Shroud, as it does not shield your health bar while it is active. You will still drain Life force every second.
• Instead,  Alchemic Vigor heals you every second for every stack of   Blight.
•   Blight is a stacking effect that reduces your health per stack by 3%, but it also grants increased  Condition Damage.
• You stack   Blight up by staying in shroud and by casting Elixirs on yourself. In turn, you can consume stacks of   Blight with shroud skills to empower them(e.g.   Voracious Arc applies  Torment only when used with at least 5 stacks of   Blight).

Rotation Concept and Video Showcase

•  Harbinger is largely ranged by default (aside from   Voracious Arc,   Devouring Cut and   Vital Draw), making it very convenient for all kinds of gameplay, as you can freely position yourself and still maintain a high damage output. Simply skip the skills listed above when you cannot be in melee and execute the rotation as usual.

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Damage Log

Rotation Flow

Section	Notes
General Stuff	Careful:This build scales with the number of conditions on the enemy. For guidance on setting up the training area, see my guide for it The rotation is very simple, as it involves using almost all of your weapon and utility skills on cooldown. Always pair   Plague Signet and   Blood Is Power:   Plague Signet immediately transfers the self- Bleeding and  Torment. Try to time it right when the conditions apply to you, as they might get cleansed otherwise.
Opener	Start with precasting   Elixir of Promise and   Elixir of Anguish for initial   Blight stacks. Then, use all your weapon and utility skills and make sure to transfer the coditions from   Blood Is Power with   Plague Signet. Then enter shroud, and the general rotation starts.
Section 1:   Harbinger Shroud	In shroud, you want so use the following skills:   Dark Barrage x3   Devouring Cut x2 - if you can't be in melee range, skip this skill.   Voracious Arc x2 - if you can't be in melee range, skip this skill.   Vital Draw x1 - makes the 1-weapon rotation more sustainable. Save for CC if needed. Start with   Dark Barrage and   Voracious Arc, as they define the duration of the   Harbinger Shroud loop. Leave shroud after the third cast of   Dark Barrage.
Section 2: Pistol + Torch	With the exception of the combo of   Blood Is Power and   Plague Signet, you want to use all skills on cooldown. Try to stay in melee range for the Elixirs to apply   Blight to yourself. Otherwise, you might lack stacks for the skills that consume it. Since you use all skills except for   Weeping Shots only once per loop, start with that and squeeze the second cast in at any time later in this section.
CC Skills for Breakbar Damage	Vile Blast   Voracious Arc   Oppressive Collapse   Vital Draw All CC skills will apply  Torment via  Insidious Disruption.

Gear & Traits

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. ~80% Condition Duration in the hero panel:  Barbed Precision together with Superior Sigil of Demons give the remaining 20% for  Bleeding and  Torment.
2. Maximize Condition damage
3. Maximize Critical chance to trigger  Barbed Precision reliably.

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Shoulders	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Chest	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Gloves	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Legs	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Boots	Viper's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Viper's
Ring 1	Viper's
Ring 2	Viper's
Accessory 1	Viper's
Accessory 2	Viper's
Backpack	Viper's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Pistol (Main Hand)	Viper's	Superior Sigil of Torment
Torch (Off Hand)	Viper's	Superior Sigil of Demons
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Plate of Beef Rendang
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters Gnashblade
Damage	Utility	Toxic Focusing Crystal
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of the Fractal

Traits

Curses
Soul Reaping
Harbinger

• For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces and trinkets of Viper's with rare/exotic Ritualist's and Abomination Weapons .

Sharing  Quickness

• If you want to share  Quickness, you just need to take  Twisted Medicine and  Deathly Haste and execute the rotation as usual.
• Make sure to cast   Elixir of Ambition and   Elixir of Anguish after combat starts to not have the boons stripped from your subgroup.
•  Twisted Medicine makes you share a partial uptime on all(!) boons with a single button press, which is something only harbinger can do.
• For safer boon sharing, you can replace any piece of Viper's with Ritualist's at a small damage loss. This will become relevant in the open world build.

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

Link to the Build on the Editor

For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.

Increasing General Survivability

• The first step for increased survivability is to use  Parasitic Contagion,  Twisted Medicine,  Deathly Haste and as many pieces of Ritualist's or Celestial as you can afford. Rare Ritualist Armor and Exotic Trinkets are cheap to buy.
• The  Vitality from Ritualist's makes your   Harbinger Shroud much stronger, so you can benefit from more persistent Blight stacks and higher damage under pressure.
• You can also replace  Soul Reaping with  Death Magic. Usually this isn't required, but it helps against very tough enemies. This is a noticeable damage loss, as it does not fully cover  Vulnerability. Whenever  Vulnerability is provided, the damage gap becomes much smaller.
• So essentially, we're playing  Quickness  Harbinger with  Death Magic.
• That way, you obtain massive amounts of Toughness, permanent coverage of  Protection and passive healing at a fairly small damage loss:

Curses
Death Magic
Harbinger

•  Putrid Defense &  Corrupter's Fervor stack up Death's Carapace very fast and thus provide pulsing  Protection when you have more than 25 stacks. Each stack of  Poisoned you apply grants 2 stacks! Starting combat with   Weeping Shots and   Vile Blast will stack up 30 stacks within ~2 seconds of starting combat.
• You will heal passively via  Alchemic Vigor and  Parasitic Contagion.
• If you don't want to deal with the   Blood Is Power shenanigans in open world,   Corrosive Poison Cloud makes up for excellent AoE tool for  Poisoned and  Weakness.

Boon Coverage

This build is great at covering boons on itself and allies:

1. The coverage of  Protection was explained already.
2.   Blood Is Power and   Oppressive Collapse provide  Might, also in an area around you.
3.  Furious Demise covers a partial uptime on  Fury.
4. You can use a  Relic of the Midnight King for full  Fury and high  Might coverage in an area with the 4 short-cooldown CC skills you have.
5.  Elixir of Anguish,  Deathly Haste and  Twisted Medicine apply a full uptime on  Quickness and a partial uptime on all boons in an area. The  Concentration from Ritualist's extends the duration on all of them!
6. If you can, make use of jade protocols!   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge give 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from  Stability,  Resistance and  Resolution on entering combat every 30 seconds.

Dealing with Conditions and Control effects (CC)

• I like to use   Well of Power for pulsing  Might, condition cleanses and Stun break in one skill.
•   Plague Signet is another condition cleanse and Stun break in one skill.
• You can use  Plague Sending for another cleanse every time you go into shroud.