Condition Specter (Spear)

Strike from the shadows with our Guild Wars 2 Condition Specter (Spear) build.
Raids - February 2025 Balance
Seisan meta team
Condition Specter (Spear)
Skills Gearset Build Template
Thief Builds

The Condition Specter build for Guild Wars 2 is a high-damage, well-rounded Thief specialization designed for raids. It leverages Shadow Shroud for sustain and utility while executing fast-paced rotations that require precise timing. With plenty of crowd control, strong cleave damage, and defensive options, this build excels in encounters demanding adaptability. However, mastering its mechanics requires skillful execution and awareness of Revealed timers and damage modifiers.
Pros +
Plenty of CC Short ramp-up Lots of cleave Defensive options High damage
Cons -
Fast paced rotation Easy to cancel skills High mastery curve
Attributes
Power 2172
Toughness 1000
Vitality 1297
Precision 1633
Critical Chance 35.14%
Ferocity 0
Critical Damage 150%
Condition Damage 2016
Healing Power 133
Expertise 944
Condition Duration 77.93%
Concentration 0
Boon Duration 0%
Gear
Item Stat

Viper'sHelm

Viper'sShoulders

Viper'sCoat

Viper'sGloves

Viper'sLeggings

Viper'sBoots
Item Stat

Viper'sBackpiece

Viper'sAccessory

Viper'sAccessory

Viper'sAmulet

Viper'sRing

Viper'sRing

Relic
Primary Weapon Set

Viper's SpearMain Hand
Secondary Weapon Set

Viper's SpearMain Hand
Other Items

Infusionx18

Food

Utility

Jade Bot Core
Traits & Skills
Skills
Skill Notes

  • Use for personal mobility and good subgroup Healing.

  • grants you and allies instant Stability.

  • is your strongest self-Heal; it also provides substantial subgrouphealing.

  • Swap out for when you need additional Defiance Break.

  • Against highly mobile bosses, you can swap to ().
Skill Reference Guide
Spear Default Keybinds
1 (Stealth Attack)
2 Lead Attack
  ↳ 2 Follow Up
       ↳ 2 Finisher
3 Lead Attack
  ↳ 3 Follow Up
       ↳ 3 Finisher
4
Scepter & Dagger Default Keybind
3
Shadow Shroud Default Keybind
2
3
4
5
Trait Notes
  • Don't bother using , as the healing output in Viper-prefix gear is very meager.
  • can help ramp and sustain party boons.
  • can steal enemy boons or help sustain party boons.
  • You can use in the Specter Traitline to grant Resistance from your Well skills.
Equipment Notes

  • Ignoring the Weapon Swap after each Shroud loop and using a single Spear with and will cost you aproximately ~1500 DPS.

  • Non-SotO Relic alternatives:

    • as a powerful alternative in encounters with long phases and incoming boss damage. The arena's pulsing damage aura in many encounters is attributed to the boss!
    • to cleave in encounters with multiple targets, at the cost of a small (aproximately 500) dps loss against single targets.
Rotation & Extras

The pulsing damage of or can Reveal you while in Stealth. You must practice your timing around to avoid this problem.

It is strongly advised that you disable Auto Cast on Spear skill 1, by holding CTRL and Right Clicking the skill. If that setting remains enabled, then any skill can interrupt your Stealth Attack. If you want to queue into your next skill while the Stealth Attack is channeling, then Auto Cast must be disabled!

Precast up to five minutes before the fight, as it Recharges while armed. You can reset its cooldown with Mushroom King's Blessing when practicing.

Precast as combat starts, except when practicing on the golem.

  2. (+ + during this cast)
  8. Weapon Swap

Rotation Concept

  • Spear skills 2 and 3 are each a sequence of 3 skills: Lead Attack Follow Up Finisher. Using a skill from either sequence will progress both sequences.

  • After using a Finisher:

    • grants a damage modifier
    • grants 4 Initiative (on the final, delayed strike)

While outside Shroud, loop through the following steps. If you don't have any Filler skills available, skip step 1.

  1. Filler

You will do a Shadow Shroud Loop when Weapon Swap is just about to come off Cooldown (around 1 second away), regardless of what step of the Spear loop you are in:

  2. Weapon Swap

, , or a Shroud Loop may count as Filler skills. They should be used off Cooldown, except for a Shroud loop, which will be paired with Weapon Swap.

If a Filler becomes available after a completed Step 1, weave it into your Spear combo, then continue through the loop until back at Step 1.

should replace if either:

  • The enemy is above 90% health.
  • You are using as your only filler skill in step 1. (Otherwise, you may still be Revealed before your !)
Example Loops

Example of Filler placement:

  2. Shroud loop

Example of skipping step 1 in the loop:

  1. (skipped)
  3. Shroud Loop
Rotation Notes

  • Cast Venoms with allies nearby, after combat starts so they don't get removed by the boonstrip at the start of most encounters.

  • , , and can interrupt other skill casts.

  • Weapon Swapping and Shroud both activate and .

  • Spear combos have a very generous reset timer of 4 seconds. Thanks to this, you can cast skills between your individual Spear skills without resetting your combo sequence, such as in the opener.
Skill Defiance Break Source
150 Spear
180
150
750 Optional elite skill

Comments

awetea51012 months ago

Thanks! It's really solid, i tuned it for myself for OW and i am unbeatable. I can solo everything now. But one thing bothers me. I just got the spear and perfected (not exactly perfect but quite good) the spear rotation and i always end up doing less damage than with the scepter...?

The spear rotation is yours as seen here. My scepter rotation would be: All CDs, then spam 3 until initiative is gone, then shroud clowning until my inititative is full.

Is that because i try it in celestial gear mostly? My guess would be that because i lack vipers and only have the runes and fractal relic, i probably have not enough condi duration to make the relic pop off enough on spear, because the spear is so bleeding heavy.

Can someone please check that in full ascended vipers gear and all that? It can't be that spamming 3 on the scepter is THAT good that it can compete with that masterfully crafted rotation, i can not accept it.

THanks!
Iskarel2 months ago

Getting good value out of Scepter is a lot easier than Spear, so without seeing a log of your Spear play, it's hard to really pinpoint the problem. Spear has no downtime in the rotation and the input requirement for Stealth Attacks is a little unusual (you need to hold down the input, because queueing into a skill that isn't available is impossible, e.g. usually after weapon swap), so it's easy to lose DPS even when following the rotation structure.
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