How to kill Harbinger in WvW?

[ShadowCatz.8437]

So I have played catalyst with mostly Berserker and some trinkets with cele on it and I can not even make a dent on Harbringer before my HP goes down to zero. Weapons is Scepter/Dagger and Dagger/Dagger. What the heck is going on?

This have now happen 4-5 times, so what can I do to at least have a chance to kill Harbringer when I try to take camps?

Trait is Fire and Arcane for dodge blast on earth. Do I have to replace rest of my gear with Cele or have Vitality attribute to even have a chance?

EDIT: What skill do Harbringer have that lift one in the air as that happened once while fighting.

Edited August 7, 2023 by ShadowCatz.8437

[Nash.2681]

How to kill Harbinger? Bring its hp to 0.

On a more serious note- pvp fights in this game are disgustingly dependant of sustain, defensive choices are usually way more rewarding than going for dmg. As result, bunker builds usually have an easy time when fighting glass canons. Your best bet vs. Harbinger is lot of cc and burst, since necros are notorious short on stability. High mobility also doesn't hurt.

What lift's you up is his skill nr. 5 in harbinger shroud, Vital Draw.

[Edu.6984]

15 minutes ago, ShadowCatz.8437 said:

So I have played catalyst with mostly Berserker and some trinkets with cele on it and I can not even make a dent on Harbringer before my HP goes down to zero. Weapons is Scepter/Dagger and Dagger/Dagger. What the heck is going on?

This have now happen 4-5 times, so what can I do to at least have a chance to kill Harbringer when I try to take camps?

Trait is Fire and Arcane for dodge blast on earth. Do I have to replace rest of my gear with Cele or have Vitality attribute to even have a chance?

EDIT: What skill do Harbringer have that lift one in the air as that happened once while fighting.

 

Harb is one of the most broken specs right now. Cata looks weak compared to that. Even on full cele the fight favors the harbinger. Your best chance is probably try to burst him super fast on a glass build, if it fails run away. 

 

Antitoxin runes makes harb nearly immune to condis, and very few builds have enough direct dmg to do more dmg than they heal. Harb mobility is also quite decent, so he can outrun some slow specs too. 

 

That said, like core necro, their defenses don't scale that well in groups. It is easier to fight harb in groups. The life force generation may be enough to tank people 1v1, but can't handle multiple people focusing. A cleanse spam build like tempest reduces the condi pressure a lot.

 

Also, avoid the elite elixir. The animation is poor and it is hard to avoid when melee. It is easier to avoid if you are playing a ranged build, 99% of the time they will drop the elixir on their feet.

[Thomas.2564]

Go to cliffside, w8, then pull 👍

[Dawdler.8521]

1 hour ago, Thomas.2564 said:

Go to cliffside, w8, then pull 👍

This is somewhat of a problem when the necro probably have his pull equipped thats better than any pull you bring to fight him with.

[Thomas.2564]

 

6 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

This is somewhat of a problem when the necro probably have his pull equipped thats better than any pull you bring to fight him with.

What, spectral pull? That skill is kitten... Just zigzag a little, and it cant register where u are. So it will just end up pulling any nearby mobs 😂😂

[Sleepwalker.1398]

Try a focus. Also try Earth instead of Arcane for perma stab.

[manu.7539]

I had a duel yesterday vs an harbinger and looked at all the boons on it. There was constantly 7-8 boons on him and I was also constantly affected by 3-4-5 different condis.

I was miraculously able to survive to it a long time and didnt die but there is no way I could seriously compete with this tons of boons and applied conditions!

[SleepyBat.9034]

I'm not sure if you can beat a DM Harb these days, maybe before they made elixir cdrs baseline for it but not now.

[dead.7638]

Pew pew

[Khenzy.9348]

If Harbinger is such a broken spec right now, wait for it to get the pistol/torch combo. 🙃

[ArchonWing.9480]

Just switch to Cele Earth tempest with diamond skin/aftershock and immobolize them for 60 years. They'll die of old age.

Although I prefer fiery greatsword in the other direction tbh.

Edited August 8, 2023 by ArchonWing.9480

[stormemperor.3745]

blast earth field, get magnetic aura, simple as that.

Edited August 9, 2023 by stormemperor.3745

[Chaba.5410]

Never thought I'd see the day when the boon uptime from elixir spam was considered a necro problem rather than engineer.

[oatsnjuices.1698]

Making their projectiles reflectable would be a start.

[Buran.3796]

   I usually roam as either cele Renebow, marauder Vindicator, marauder Willbender or Celestial Firebrand, and in fights against Harbingers general is utterly uphill with most of those build, except maybe cele Renebow, which is hard and I usually lose but sometimes I can win or turn it in a long fight.

   Part of my problem is that I'm not entirely familiar of how Harbinger works, but over time I gained awareness over one of the critical reasons they are so strong:

* Plague Sending + Path of Corruption, Implacable Foe + Deathly Haste.

   When a Harbinger enters in Shroud with those traits instantly gains stability (for more than 3.5 seconds in WvW with cele stats) + 4.5 s of quickness (with extending pulses) and permafury. Then Dark Barrage uses as first attack both transfers conditions AND corrupts boons in the enemy, and this happens while having stability, fury and quickness... This makes it an incredibly effective combo, which both hits hard, cripples enemies and is arguably hard to prevent. Smart Harbingers also save this this combo not for the initial swings in a fight, but in the middle of it when has ensure the use of some defensive capabilities from the foe, in a sort of counter attack. I've found that even being cautious in a fight and playing well my cards is really difficult to outpace the sustain of a Harb: is not like I'm not able to chunk them large amounts of HP, but even ccing them and landing my own burst, they recover from it at impressive pace.

   As Edu said, they are way more vulnerable in fights of n vs n...

Edited August 8, 2023 by Buran.3796

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I don't have a lot of hours on Ele so can't really say too many specifics, but one thing worth mentioning is to try to avoid their shroud 2 casts (the conal barrage of green projectiles). Most Harbingers run Curses and take a trait that causes shroud 2 to corrupt boons. As a Cata you are likely taking Staunch Auras and will have constant reapplication of stability and as such theres a high chance it will get corrupted, which can be one of the biggest momentum swings in fights against them if they know how to capitalize on that.

That and Antitoxin runes go a long way for any build. As a Cata you also have really high access to Magnetic Aura, which can be a huge hindrance to Harb's damage output.

Idk either class to know who the matchup favors, but if you are running mostly Zerker and the Harb is Cele (likely) then I imagine it'd very massively favor the Harb over you. Don't be ashamed to just walk away from them. No shame in not wanting to fight a build like that. It's braindead and massively overtuned.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Za Shaloc.3908

[dead.7638]

Not familiar with another class!!!!   I demand nerfs!!!!   Where cmc?

[Grave.5683]

How to beat any necro in wvw in a nutshell: Play ranger and pew pew from a safe distance.

 

[Buran.3796]

5 hours ago, dead.7638 said:

Not familiar with another class!!!!   I demand nerfs!!!!   Where cmc?

  Shadowcatz asked about how to fight Harbingers, didn't demand any nerf.

[Justine.6351]

Force the fight underwater.

[SleepyBat.9034]

18 minutes ago, Justine.6351 said:

Force the fight underwater.

Doesn't necro have a pretty stacked set of underwater skills?

[Justine.6351]

1 hour ago, SleepyBat.9034 said:

Doesn't necro have a pretty stacked set of underwater skills?

Most people can't fight underwater, not as well as on land anyhow.

[Arheundel.6451]

On 8/8/2023 at 6:56 PM, Khenzy.9348 said:

If Harbinger is such a broken spec right now, wait for it to get the pistol/torch combo. 🙃

Dunno why they emoji you now...they will all cry later...the combination of the torch knock down and pistol pewpew will be very annoying to deal with

[Arheundel.6451]

2 hours ago, Grave.5683 said:

How to beat any necro in wvw in a nutshell: Play ranger and pew pew from a safe distance.

 

Then the harbinger is full celestial and face tank your whole pewpew combo...even if you are full zerk with skirmisher and beastmaster....ever tried to power dmg a cele tank with perma protection and dmg reduction food?