Welcome to the Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build Guide! Crossbow / Dagger allows you to play like a Rogue or Assassin in other MMORPGs. This build is also capable of a kiting playstyle similar to an Ebonsong from Archeage. Having the option to do both keeps your enemies guessing on what your next move is!
Annihilation Barrage Shot allows for an "AoE bombing" playstyle which is strong early on before players get too many defensive stats. You can use skills like Thunderclouds Bombing for high single target bursts when you want to single out specific targets.
While the game gives you the option to have a single weapon out at any given time, remember you are not "main handing" one weapon over the other. This weapon combination works best when utilizing skills and passives from both weapons.
End Game Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build
If you're interested in PvE related builds, check out our PvE Crossbow / Dagger guide!
- Low Cooldowns
- Access to Stealth
- Fast Burst Combos
- Hybrid Ranged + Melee Damage
- Squishy
- AOE Bombing falls off in the Late Game
Skill Builds
In large scale PvP the goal is to dive the backline and try to pick off as many people as possible. Coordinating pushes with your guild and party members is the key!
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Annihilation Barrage Shot - This skill scales with Bonus Damage because you're throwing out so many hits! Phantom Smokescreen may help increase your chances at surviving if you use it right before.
- Quick Fire - This is your bread and butter skill to spam from range! Combining with the Nimble Leap reset, you can use it repeatedly for high single target damage and fast stacks of Thunderclouds.
- Thunderclouds Bombing - This is your core single target burst skill. You can use multi-hit skills like Quick Fire or Knife Throwing in combination with Mother Nature's Protest to get 20 Stacks of Thunderclouds quickly to ensure maximum damage on this skill.
- Multi-Shot - This is an optional skill you can replace Thunderclouds Bombing with if you feel the desire to play a more ranged playstyle. Using this whenever you see bombers going stealth within your ball knocks them back and reveals them before they have time to setup their AoE Bomb.
CC
- Shadow Strike - Using this from stealth is a great way to engage when going for an AoE Bomb with Annihilation Barrage Shot.
Buffs/ Debuffs
- Selfless Diffusion - While this does act as a buff, save it for an additional CC Break instead.
- Lightning Infusion - Putting stacks of Thunderclouds on targets is incredibly important as it increases your Critical Hit rate by a huge margin. This also allows for big bursts of single target damage with Thunderclouds Bombing.
- Mother Nature's Protest - This skill helps to stack Thunderclouds by a wide margin. This also procs on skills like Knife Throwing.
- Mortal Mark - This skill has a lot to it, but combined with the high number of hits you throw out, this scales well with high amounts of Bonus Damage.
Mobility Skills
- Nimble Leap - With the addition of Skill Augments, this skill is so strong! It can prevent you from getting CC'd if you use it at the proper times, while also increasing ranged damage output by allowing for up to 3 consecutive Quick Fire uses.
Passive Skills
- Ambidexterity - Crossbow / Dagger is heavily reliant on offhand weapon attacks so this is a must have.
- Nature's Power - Mobility skills are quite easy to maintain so you can keep this buff up almost indefinitely.
- Piercing Strike - Bonus Damage is done per hit dealt so this synergizes well with the number of hits you're doing to add a lot of extra damage so long as you're stacking Bonus Damage.
- Assassin's Instincts - Crossbow / Dagger weapons tend to have a high variance in damage between min and max damage so it's important to get as much crit chance as possible.
- Shadow Walker - Maintaining this buff is the key to your survival in PvP. Many of your damage combos involve using a mobility skill towards the beginning so maintaining this buff shouldn't be too difficult.
- Wrathful Edge - Crossbow / Dagger relies heavily on landing crits so this is a must have for damage.
- Destructive Fang - This can be rotated in/out of your build as you see fit. Sometimes there's a meta change where people stack Endurance lowering your crit chance and this helps to deal with that issue.
- Eagle Vision - This can be rotated in/out of your build as you see fit. If you're seeing a lot of "miss" notifications, then swap it in.
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Quick Fire - When paired with buffs, this Crossbow skill can have very high damage output and high uptime.
- Cleaving Moonlight - This skill can help to get many stacks of Thunderclouds onto an opponent almost instantly increasing your damage of Thunderclouds Bombing even higher.
- Thunderclouds Bombing - This is your go-to finishing skill. The whole idea is to get 20 stacks of Thunderclouds into using this skill as a finisher for explosive damage.
- Knife Throwing - When paired with Mother Nature's Protest, this can dish out 10+ hits allowing you to reach 20 stacks of Thunderclouds quite easily. Save it and use it as a slow against Melee users if you need to kite.
CC
- Shadow Strike - While being a good option to silence enemy magic users, this is also the main way to land the CC from Ankle Strike.
- Ankle Strike - With the Skill Augment, Off-Hand Weapon Activation, you can almost guarantee the one-combo potential.
Buffs/ Debuffs
- Selfless Diffusion - While this skill can greatly improve the damage of your combos, the CC break is very important and should be considered when deciding whether to use this skill as a damage buff or not. It can be good to pair the Skill Augment Health Concentration Recovery when fighting against users that do huge burst damage following their CC's.
- Lightning Infusion - This is the core debuff that you want active as frequently as possible. Gaining 20 Stacks is what allows for a high burst of Thunderclouds Bombing.
- Mother Nature's Protest - This skill allows you to stack high amounts of Lightning Infusion quickly. Skill Augment Lightning Arrow allows for higher single target damage.
- Mortal Mark - This skill has a lot to it, but considering how many hits you can do with your Crossbow skills, this increases that damage even further. Depending on the situation, use Skill Augment Stamina Stagnation to ensure the enemy target is out of stamina before going in to do my CC combo.
Mobility Skills
- Nimble Leap - With the addition of Skill Augments, this skill is so strong! It can prevent you from getting CC'd if you use it at the proper times, while also increasing ranged damage output by allowing for up to 3 consecutive Quick Fire uses.
Passive Skills
- Ambidexterity - Crossbow / Dagger is heavily reliant on offhand weapon attacks so this is a must have.
- Nature's Power - Mobility skills are quite easy to maintain so you can keep this buff up almost indefinitely.
- Piercing Strike - Bonus Damage is done per hit dealt so this synergizes well with the number of hits you're doing to add a lot of extra damage so long as you're stacking Bonus Damage.
- Assassin's Instincts - Crossbow / Dagger weapons tend to have a really high variance in damage between min and max damage so it's important to get as much crit chance as possible.
- Shadow Walker - Maintaining this buff is the key to your survival in PvP. Many of your damage combos involve using a mobility skill towards the beginning so maintaining this buff shouldn't be too difficult.
- Wrathful Edge - Crossbow / Dagger relies heavily on landing crits so this is a must have for damage.
- Destructive Fang - This can be rotated in/out of your build as you see fit. Sometimes there's a meta change where people stack Endurance lowering your crit chance and this helps to deal with that issue.
- Eagle Vision - This can be rotated in/out of your build as you see fit. If the enemy has a lot of evasion and you're seeing too many "misses" then swap it in.
- Opportunist - This is another skill that can be rotated in/out of your build as you see fit. With specific setups and a little luck, you can get to procs of Thunderclouds Bombing in one CC combo by using it before Knife Throwing with this passive.
Skill Prioritization
- Use Quality Marind Ore to craft Quality Active Skill Growth Book and Quality Passive Skill Growth Book.
- Use Rare Marind Ore to craft Rare Active Skill Growth Book and Rare Passive Skill Growth Book.
- Prioritize getting all these skills to blue first before getting them to purple. These are universal skills you always use.
- Upgrade the rest of your skills as you play the game.
PvP Gameplay and Skill Rotation
There are a few different ways to play this weapon combination in PvP depending on the situations.
Targeting Melee Users requires a more Kiting kind of playstyle, whereas attacking Mages or Ranged Users requires you to try and burst them down and play more of an "Assassin" playstyle.
When it comes to Large Scale, there are a few options. You can run the AoE Bomber route, however its efficiency greatly reduces as players start to get gear and increase their defensive stats.
AOE Bomber
- Lightning Infusion
- Mother Nature's Protest
- Camouflage Cloak
- Shadow Strike
- Phantom Smokescreen (Optional)
- Nimble Leap
- Annihilation Barrage Shot
Tips
- Shadow Strike puts you into combat so you can use this straight from the safe zone if need be.
- In situations where enemies are quick to react, skip using Phantom Smokescreen as it does increase the time it takes to get the burst damage off.
- This combo works great before users stack a lot of defensive stats, but later on, it starts to be less useful.
- Try to prioritize large clumps that are close together to make use of the AoE damage from Gale Arrow.
- If enemies aren't clumped together close enough, consider using Lightning Arrow instead.
- Try and avoid Sword and Shield users because Counter Barrier can kill you while you're spinning.
Single Target Burst
- Lightning Infusion
- Mother Nature's Protest
- Mortal Mark
- Quick Fire
- Nimble Leap
- Repeat #4 + #5 two additional times
- Shadow Strike
- Ankle Strike
- Thunderclouds Bombing
Tips
- Once you get Tevent's Massacre Blade you can start to primarily use this combo instead to consistently go in and out of stealth acting as a backline assassin.
- Many times, the triple Quick Fire is enough to kill squishier targets.
- The Off-Hand Weapon Activation Augment on Ankle Strike gives you a higher chance at increasing the damage of Thunderclouds Bombing massively.
- Lightning Infusion is considered a Weaken so it is sometimes worth not using against Bow users due to Devoted Shield.
- Priority targets are Staff or Wand users, with Bow and Crossbow users being your next targets. Melee users can be killed by this combo, too. However, they require more kiting, and your Staff users would have an easier time killing them.
When it comes to Small Scale or Arena PvP, AoE bombing isn't recommended since it is easier for players to target you during the spin. Targeting Melee users requires saving skills like Selfless Diffusion, Nimble Leap to be used defensively when you expect the enemy to use CC's.
Burst Combo
- Lightning Infusion
- Mother Nature's Protest
- Mortal Mark
- Quick Fire
- Nimble Leap
- Quick Fire
- Shadow Strike
- Ankle Strike
- Cleaving Moonlight
- Thunderclouds Bombing
Tips
- Priority targets are Staff or Wand users, with Bow and Crossbow users being your next targets. Melee users can be killed by this combo, too. However, they require more kiting. Your Staff users would have an easier time killing them due to their extended range.
- You want to stay as close as you can against Bow Users to lower their damage output from Sniper's Sense.
- You may have to save Lightning Infusion because Thunderclouds count as a Weaken and can proc the Bow User's skill Devoted Shield.
- Nimble Leap can be used to give you CC Immunity if you know an opponent is about to attempt to CC you.
- Selfless Diffusion can be used offensively to increase the damage of your combos. Keep in mind though, it's also an important way to get out of CC so if you're constantly being targeted it's better to save it.
Stheno Guardian Cheese
Stat Priorities
Use the following stat priorities when using this Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build:
- Primary Stats
- Dexterity, Strength, and Perception
You have 49 Stat Points you can freely allocate to any of the 4 primary Stats. Once you put 20 points into an individual Stat, it takes 2 points to increase the Stat by 1. Do not put more than 20 points into a Stat unless you are trying to reach a certain breakpoint.
You get bonuses for every 10 Stat Points you invest from 30 to 60. You invest your points based on acquiring these bonuses.
Crossbow / Dagger excels when stacking very high Critical Hit, Attack Speed, and Maximum Weapon Damage. All three of these things are given to you by stacking Dexterity!
Early Game
This gear is the same as your leveling gear. If you want to learn more check out our Crossbow / Dagger Leveling Guide! Your first goal is to hit 40 Dexterity for the added Critical Hit and Bonus Damage. Next, you get 30 Strength for the added HP just to increase survivability. After that, you can put the rest of your points into Perception.
Mid-Game
At this stage of the game, you reach higher numbers to get more Critical Hit and Hit. Your first goal is to hit 60 Dexterity. Afterward, place points into Perception to reach the goal of 50 Perception. This gives you increased Hit, Buff Duration, and Range which are all important stats to have in PvP. You should already have 30 Strength for added HP.
End Game
With Purple Gear in the End Game, we can reach all of our desired Stat Breakpoints. 50 - 60 Dexterity gives you increased Critical Hit, Bonus Damage, and high amounts of Attack Speed before using our buffs. Getting to 50 Strength also grants 100 Heavy Attack which can give you higher chances of doing double damage. 60 Perception increases Hit, Buff Duration, and Range to ensure you're able to deal with any kind of enemy throughout the different types of PvP.
Gear Progression
In all of these builds, once you have Queen Bellandir's Annihilation Crossbow or Tevent's Massacre Blade, you should always use them no questions asked.
Early Game Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build
Ranged Evasion Focused Story Gear
Early Game Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build
Melee Evasion Focused Story Gear
Optimal blue gear is hard to trait early in the game launch. Green gear is much easier to trait offering better PvP gear for the early game.
Any Melee user who knows how to gear properly approaches 800 Melee Hit with Greatsword users approaching the higher end. To effectively combat this, you need around 2000 Melee Evasion, which is impossible to get with Green Gear. Thus, you should focus entirely on Ranged and Magic Evasion. While people can have high Hit as well, you have Shadow Walker and Detection so you can reach massive amounts of Evasion.
While there are builds centered around Melee Evasion, most Melee users can get enough Hit to ignore the amounts of Melee Evasion you can stack in Green Gear, so I don't recommend it.
- You get Enraged Quick Sniper's Crossbow and Reflection Alter Ego Secret Art Armor from Co-Op Dungeons.
- You get Elite Resistance Knife as a Main Story Quest reward.
- Lethal Fortune Ring is obtained from completing Rustic Mother Nature Rings.
Mid Game Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build
Melee Evasion Focused
Mid Game Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build
Ranged / Magic Evasion Focused
Unless your server is filled with Melee users, it's not recommended to follow the Melee Evasion PvP Build. Trying to stack a lot of Melee Evasion as Crossbow / Dagger is difficult and sacrifices Hit or other important stats to reach any substantial amount. Detection allows for increased amounts Evasion however, it's a bit RNG and Greatsword users can use Willbreaker to lower your Melee Evasion by a huge margin.
Farming for Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow and Lequirus's Thorny Edge should be your first priority when working towards these builds. Hermit's Shroud is the next priority as you can obtain it by completing the Lithograph Book entry, Cloak that Protected a Hero. All the rest of the gear comes from Open World and Co-Op Dungeons, so farm them whenever possible.
Gear Sources
Hover over each item in the builder to see where to obtain them. Below is a list of areas and content recommended to farm to obtain these items as well. Eternal Ring of Dimension is obtained by first crafting Recipe: Dimensional Essence: Salvation and then turning that into Recipe: Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest. The tokens needed are from T1 Co-Op Dungeons.
Slaughterer's Collar, Transcendent Magic Ring, and Tycan's Bloodlust Belt can be obtained quicker by using Substance Transformation. Farming Open World Mobs and Dungeons frequently grants enough materials to roll for items atleast 2-3 times a day.
Melee Evasion
Crude Conquest Bracelet is a crafted bracelet. While Rutaine's Mysterious Bracelet does grant slightly more Melee Evasion, it's not possible to trait so I don't recommend it.
- Temple of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
- Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow
- Cave of Destruction Co-Op Dungeon
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers drops here too, save it for Ranged / Magic Evasion builds.
- Special Resistance Tactical Armor
- Reward from the Main Story Quest, or by completing the Lithograph Book entry, Armor of Unfaltering Protection.
- Ant's Nest Open World Dungeon
- Corrupt Witch's Hat and Impure Witch's Linen Pants
- Valley of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
- Corrupt Witch's Hat
- Cave of Desperation Co-Op Dungeon
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Dark Destruction Iron Gloves
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers drops here too, save it for Ranged / Magic Evasion builds.
- Cursed Wasteland Co-Op Dungeon
- Reflection Breakthrough Leather Boots
- Greyclaw Forest Open World Mobs
- Elite Retainer's Belt
Ranged / Magic Evasion
- Temple of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
- Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow
- Cave of Destruction Co-Op Dungeon
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Reflection Alter Ego Secret Art Armor
- Moonlight Grace Leather Boots
- Also obtained from the Main Story Quest Rewards or by completing the Lithograph Book entry, Power that Pushes Through.
- Cursed Wasteland Co-Op Dungeon
- Flying Dragon Breath Mask
- Flying Dragon Scale Secret Art Pants
- Death's Abyss Co-Op Dungeon
- Grim Judicator's Touch
Crossbow / Dagger End Game PvP Build
No Rune Synergies or Resonances
Crossbow / Dagger End Game PvP Build
With Rune Synergies and Resonances
You can use this build with Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow and Lequirus's Thorny Edge until you are able to get Archboss Weapons.
This build optimizes your damage output giving you increased Critical Hit Damage, and high amounts of Bonus Damage. The increased Bonus Damage from Ghost Wolf Set helps to increase the damage on many of your skills because of how many hits you throw out.
Alternatives
- Queen Bellandir's Annihilation Crossbow and Tevent's Massacre Blade both drop from Archbosses. Use Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow and Lequirus's Thorny Edge until obtaining the Archboss Weapons.
- Special Resistance Hawk Hood is a great option to use when wanting more Hit however, Cooldown Speed is sacrificed.
Gear Sources
Hover over each item in the builder to see where to obtain them. Below is a list of areas and content recommended to farm to obtain these items as well.
- Eternal Ring of Dimension
- Crafting Recipe: Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest using Recipe: Dimensional Essence: Salvation.
- Requires 10 tokens from each T1 Co-Op Dungeon.
- Substance Transformation
- Farming Open World Mobs and Dungeons frequently, grants enough materials to roll for items atleast 2-3 times a day.
- Transcendent Magic Ring
- Tycan's Bloodlust Belt
- Temple of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
- Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow
- Cave of Destruction Co-Op Dungeon
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Sanctum of Desire Open World Dungeon
- Reaper's Footsteps
- Ghost Wolf Incision Gloves
- Reaper's Interring Pants
- Junobote Field Boss
- Abyss Conqueror's Necklace
- Craft Recipe: Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Desire with 40 Abyss Currency.
- Reaper's Black Mask
- Adentus Field Boss
- Special Resistance Hawk Hood
- Crown Blessed by Moonlight Lithograph Book entry
- Black Boar from Purelight Hill
Crossbow / Dagger End Game No Boss PvP Build
No Rune Synergies or Resonance
- While you are no longer receiving the increased Critical Damage from Death Set, you're still maintaining high Bonus Damage due to the high number of hits you throw out.
- This build allows you to PvP without the use of the Auction House, items dropped from Field Bosses, or needing to be in a Guild.
Gear Sources
Hover over each item in the builder to see where to obtain them. Below is a list of areas and content recommended to farm to obtain these items as well.
- Eternal Ring of Dimension
- Crafting Recipe: Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest using Recipe: Dimensional Essence: Salvation.
- Requires 10 tokens from each T1 Co-Op Dungeon.
- Substance Transformation
- Farming Open World Mobs and Dungeons frequently, grants enough materials to roll for items atleast 2-3 times a day.
- Transcendent Magic Ring
- Tycan's Bloodlust Belt
- Temple of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
- Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow
- Cave of Destruction Co-Op Dungeon
- Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Cursed Wasteland Co-Op Dungeon
- Ghost Wolf Alter Ego Armor
- Sanctum of Desire Open World Dungeon
- Reaper's Footsteps
- Ghost Wolf Incision Gloves
- Special Resistance Hawk Hood
- Crown Blessed by Moonlight Lithograph Book entry
- Black Boars in Purelight Hill
- Special Resistance Ancient Dragon Pants
- Open World farming in Fonos Basin
- Even As the Shadow in the Fog Sprays Blood Lithograph Book entry
- Abyss Conqueror's Necklace
- Craft Recipe: Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Desire with 40 Abyss Currency.
WARNING - The following content is from the Korean version of the game, there is no release date for this content for the Global version. If you want to see what you need for the future, peruse at your leisure.
(Read the warning!) T2 Crossbow / Dagger PvP Builds
Guardians
Guardians are special transformations that add offensive or defensive buffs or attacks to your character for 30 seconds. You'll have a few options for Guardians when it comes to PvP.
- Lady Knight Kamarshea - This guardian lowers your cooldown while also giving you a damage shield equal to 50% of your maximum mana. This is the go-to defensive guardian whenever the plan is to dive the ball to try and survive longer along with higher uptime on my skills.
- Pale Nemesis Hartach - This guardian allows you to reset your stealth if you get a kill within 3 seconds of engaging an opponent. It's useful when AoE Bombing because it almost always procs the invisibility at the end of the spin. This is also similar to the weapon effect of Tevent's Massacre Blade so until you get those daggers this is a good way to go in and out of stealth during fights. Sadly, however, it's only a 30 second duration so be careful when you pop it.
- Shade Revenant Stheno - This guardian shoots out projectiles and can synergize well with weapons like Queen Bellandir's Annihilation Crossbow, and skills like Mother Nature's Protest! You can spread poisons and do quite a lot of damage, not to mention you can use it while in stealth from Camouflage Cloak for some free damage that people can't avoid if they're in range.
Summary
- This Crossbow / Dagger PvP Build Guide explores the many different ways to play this weapon combination in detail.
- Crossbow / Dagger can play like Assassins or Rogues from other MMO's.
- You also have access to a Kiting Mid-Ranged playstyle like Ebonsong from Archeage!
- Crossbow / Dagger utilizes a variety of Buffs/Debuffs to provide additional damage hits to a target that can result in over 40+ Hits per second.
- Crossbow / Dagger has the highest single target DPS possible out of the various weapon combinations in the game!
- Getting over 50 Strength, 60 Dexterity, and possibly 60 Perception, these recommended builds grant you high Attack Speed, Heavy Attack, Critical Hit, Movement Speed, and additional Attack Range. This guarantees the opportunities needed to quickly burst squishier targets while having the option to kite the tankier Melee users as well!
- Selfless Diffusion is quite versatile of a skill, whether you need to get out of sticky situations, lower your cooldowns, or increasing your burst immensely, it should always be on your hotbar!
- Crossbow / Daggers can utilize Damage Bonus, unlike any other weapon combination due to the ability to output so many hits.
Credits
Written by Bloo
Reviewed by Dredscythe