GW2. WvW Build. Celestial Harbinger Roaming Build. Harbinger. Necromancer World vs World.
Last Update: September 2024
Condition Variant
The Celestial Harbinger is a necromancer WvW roaming build that has great sustain due to gaining Blight stacks from staying in Harbinger Shroud and casting elixirs on yourself, which heals over time, but costs maximum health making you susceptible to burst.
This weakness is made up for with the toughness from celestial gear, the protection boon, and movement from the Relic of Speed. With carapace stacks from Death Magic, it can become even more survivable while gaining cleanses over time. However, you need to actively apply conditions to keep these stacks up. The Curses trait line is always mandatory because it provides corrupts, high critical chance and Weakness, adding both damage and defense at the same time.
Basic Rotation:
- Staff 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > Swap
- Warhorn 5 > Pistol 3 > 2 > Warhorn 4 > Enter Shroud
Shroud Rotation:
- Shroud 2 > 4 > 3 > 5 > 111 > 2
After exiting Shroud perform the basic rotation in the opposite direction.
Equipment
| Item | Stat | Rune / Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Helm Celestial | ||
| Shoulders Celestial | ||
| Coat Celestial | ||
| Gloves Celestial | ||
| Leggings Celestial | ||
| Boots Celestial |
Primary Weapon Set
| Pistol Celestial | ||
| Warhorn Celestial |
Secondary Weapon Set
| Staff Celestial |
|
| Item | Stat |
|---|---|
| Amulet Celestial | |
| Ring Celestial | |
| Ring Celestial | |
| Accessory Celestial | |
| Accessory Celestial | |
| Backpiece Celestial |
Relic
Consumables
Infusions
| Optional x18 |
Alternatives
- Sigil: instead of Torment
- Relic: for more damage
Skills
| Pistol / Warhorn | Heal / Utility / Elite |
| Staff | Harbinger Shroud |
Alternatives
- Utility: instead of Flesh Wurm
- Utility: instead of Flesh Wurm
Traits
Build Template
Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)
[&DQgnGgIvQCfnGgAALgEAAOsaAAC9AQAA6BoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]Gameplay
Vampire Variant
The Celestial Harbinger with Blood Magic gain massive healing bonuses that can provide more sustain while still keeping the pressure from the shroud skills. With the Spear, most of its damage comes from life stealing which gives more synergy with Blood Magic and the Atrocity relic which increases healing and life steal damage. Life steal and condition damage both can deal decent damage without investing many stats into them. This type of damage also ignores enemies armor so it can’t be mitigated.
The Sword/Warhorn set is mainly used for mobility and utility. Use the Sword 3 for repositioning and the Warhorn 5 for swiftness. Otherwise you will mostly camp the Spear for damage. Spear’s main mechanic is gaining Soul Shards which can be expended using the Spear 2 for high burst damage. The Spear 4 is a projectile that allows you to port to the target it lands on, and taking this port will recharge the Spear 2 and giving you Soul Shards, allowing more burst combos. On top of this, entering Shroud will recharge the Spear 4, therefore allowing it to recharge Spear 2 again, and as a result giving you plenty of damage just from the Spear and Shroud set.
However, when outnumbered it can still be susceptible to burst. For this reason, this build focuses on barrier generation to make up for the lack of health bar because the Blood Bank trait converts some of the healing you receive as barrier, including life steal and passive regeneration. Curses trait line can replace Death Magic if you are in a group to provide more pressure and boon corrupt, but for solo will be harder to survive being focused.
Basic Combo:
- Warhorn 5 > Sword 3 > Swap
- Spear 4 > 3 + 4 > 2 > Enter Shroud
- Shroud Rotation > Exit Shroud
- Spear 4 > 4 > 2
Shroud Rotation:
- Shroud 2 > 4 > 3 > 5 > 111 > 2
Equipment
| Item | Stat | Rune / Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Helm Celestial | ||
| Shoulders Celestial | ||
| Coat Celestial | ||
| Gloves Celestial | ||
| Leggings Celestial | ||
| Boots Celestial |
Primary Weapon Set
| Spear Celestial |
|
Secondary Weapon Set
| Sword Celestial | ||
| Warhorn Celestial |
| Item | Stat |
|---|---|
| Amulet Celestial | |
| Ring Celestial | |
| Ring Celestial | |
| Accessory Celestial | |
| Accessory Celestial | |
| Backpiece Celestial |
Relic
Consumables
Infusions
| Optional x18 |
Alternatives
- Relic: for more mobility
Skills
| Spear | Heal / Utility / Elite |
| Sword / Warhorn | Harbinger Shroud |
Alternatives
- Utility: instead of Flesh Wurm
Traits
Build Template
Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)
[&DQgCLxMdQCbnGgAALgEAAOsaAAC9AQAA6BoAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Dhuumfire is heavy nerfed compare to the tooltips.
Dhuumfire is not bugged, it was intended to have this duration as said by CMC here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsRZKpWgE_A&t=799s and yes the tooltip is wrong, but it would be even more overpowered if it were right. Dhuumfire is still the best option to add damage on autoattack plus Soul Reaping is more than one trait, it’s better overall.
The auto’s from this slap harder than I realized. I feel like a machinegun that just won’t stop.
Hi Jen, which sigils do you recommend on underwater weps
Tbh I only use Trident when underwater so Doom sigil and Cleansing sigil should be enough
Which would be a better alternative offhand weapon for the death magic build? Dagger or Focus?
Dagger
Which one is the best for newbie roamer?
Death Magic
Damn I keep trying to branch out into other classes but torch is looking pretty sick
am i dumb every torch i see is Scourge only
gotta do secrets of the obscure to get weapon mastery
Hi, thanks for the guides! Is the death magic variant still viable and what runes, weapons, sigils and relic would you recommened with the death magic one?
The same just replace dagger for staff
Wow such fast reply thank you. Ok awesome to know i can swap between torch vampire and deathmagic just by changing weapons only then
Didn’t they fix life from death back in July to not heal yourself anymore
It does heal yourself, you can even see on the video.
Do you recommend Death Magic or Blood Magic when it comes to solo roaming survival?
For solo death magic is more tanky
Is dagger/torch still worth it while taking death magic?
You can, but Dagger gets more value with the life force and healing from Blood Magic
Would using the Sigil of Earth with a 2-second cooldown be more effective than the Sigil of Torment with a 3-second cooldown for increasing the triggering rate of Corrupter’s Fervor? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupter%27s_Fervor
if we were going for pure synergy yes, but the torment sigil is just way more powerful than earth in general since its aoe and provides more burst
Will this be alright for exotic gear set? I dont have any ascended yet 🙁
There are enough Harbinger plague going on, but yes Exotic is good enough.
With harbinger you might as well use Rare gear and still overpower all the other poor souls in wvw.
I noticed you have torch listed as an option with the weapons, but you have harbinger and not scourge. How are you able to access the last 2 weapon skills for torch if you are using Harbinger?
Anet did an update and now you can use torch in any profession 🙂
Yes, but you need the Scourge trait line to access it and its not listed above.
No, not anymore
You need the newest expansion Secrets of the Obscure, doing the story will unlock Weapon Master for your account and you will be able to equip weapons from other specializations.
Ahhh weapon master, thank you!!
with the October nerf on Celestial, would ritualist stats be a good replacement?
Ritualist not bad but you want more toughness, so for the Condition variant you might want to take Trailblazer’s with Apothecary stats. And for the vampire variant full cele will be fine anyway.