Antiquary - Lucky Shot Duelist

This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.

Focused on: Condition damage and Control

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 30, 2025.

Overview

A condition-based Antiquary build for PvP which uses Scoundrel's Luck and Canach-Coin Toss to constantly regenerate initiative in order to repeatedly interrupt opponents with Head Shot and deal damage over time.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Pistol

Shortbow

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Offhand Pistol is the backbone of the build and therefore cannot be swapped out. The mainhand weapon can be swapped to Sword or Pistol, but Scepter is generally preferred as it gives you access to Protection and a spammable blast finisher for group stealth inside Black Powder. Also, it is good for kiting and can damage enemies through projectile block/reflect effects.
• Shortbow is strongly recommended as the second weapon set, as it offers great mobility and better teamfight potential.

Healing

• Skelk Venom - more healing, can be better for grindier matchups.
• Hide in Shadows - good for escaping or sneaking past enemies.

Utility

• Roll for Initiative - powerful stun break with a higher cooldown that evades backwards and refunds some initiative. Great for getting out of big AoE bursts.

Elite

• Skritt Scuffle - if you find you are running out of gas or need better artifact selection during teamfights.
• Basilisk Venom - when roaming with allies, this can be a massive swing as it can proc your interrupt effects multiple times.

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Specializations

Variants

• Possessive Hoarder can be taken for more boons and sustain at the cost of some artifact refreshes, which could potentially causing you to run out of gas during a fight. Skritt Scuffle is recommended if taking this trait.

Equipment

Scepter

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Amulets

• - can improve Power matchups but mistakes are more punishing vs. Condi matchups. Recommended with Rune of Orr to offset this.

Runes

• Rune of Orr - better condition defense. Recommended with .

• Rune of Necromancer / Rune of Sunless / Rune of Engineer - higher damage for specific matchups.

Sigils

• Sigil of Escape + Sigil of Energy - for second weapon set if you need more survivability/escape potential and will be avoiding teamfights.

Usage

General

• The basis for this build is to spam Head Shot at enemies to interrupt anything they try to cast and proc the following effects:
  • Pressure Striking - high condition damage.
  • Relic of Agony - damage over time (stacking).
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Absorption - boon stealing.
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Ruthlessness - Might stacking.

• While the damage from Pressure Striking can be cleansed, Relic of Agony cannot. Both bypass armor/incoming strike damage reduction and the latter 2 also bypass incoming condition duration/damage modifiers. However, only the Torment from Pressure Striking is increased by modifiers such as Vulnerability.

• What differentiates this from other similar builds is that it uses Scoundrel's Luck to allow you to cast Canach-Coin Toss repeatedly, maintaining extremely high initiative regeneration and cleansing conditions (or converting them into boons). Also, you gain an additional 2 initiative when using an artifact thanks to Enterprising Aristocrat.

• You want to aim to begin a fight by using Head Shot once or twice, then Skritt Swipe to replenish initiative and gain artifacts. After another Head Shot, use Canach-Coin Toss to replenish initiative and cleanse/convert conditions. Then, you want to cast an artifact, wait for the Scoundrel's Luck buff to appear, and immediatley use Canach-Coin Toss again. Rinse and repeat by always using Canach-Coin Toss right after your artifact finishes and filling the space between your artifacts by spamming Head Shot until your enemy is dead.

• Every 4 casts of Head Shot, give or take, you will get new artifacts for free due to Prodigious Pincher. Assassin's Reward adds some incredible self-healing which tops off the defensive capabilities of the build.

• Prolific Plunderer allows you to use multiple artifacts from each pilfer and gives you 1 extra choice of an artifact to use.

• Make sure to use Skritt Swipe off cooldown to keep your boons up, refresh your artifacts, regain some initiative, and get a free Daze.

• If your enemy begins blocking/reflecting projectiles, pause casting Head Shot and instead opt for Measured Shot/Endless Night as Endless Night is not a projectile and deals significant condition damage.

• Several of your artifacts can trigger Guarded Initiation.

• In a pinch, you can use Shadow Sap for some barrier and Protection before incoming burst.

• If using Shortbow as your second weapon set, you can spam Choking Gas instead of Head Shot for a similar effect, but it is also unblockable and inflicts Poison at the cost of being slower and requiring more initiative.

Related Builds

• Antiquary - Lucky Shot Roamer - WvW version.

• Antiquary - Shortbow Artifact Duelist - another PvP build which is similar but focuses on artifact value.