Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build Guide

Last Updated:December 6, 2024|Changelog

Welcome to the Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build Guide. At first glance, Greatsword / Crossbow synergies seem non-existent. However, with the added Skill Damage Boost and Heavy Attack Chance gained from Greatsword skills like Vital Force and Cold Warrior increases the damage of the Gale explosions with Annihilation Barrage Shot substantially!

If you ever wanted to play an off-meta Assassin build, this may just be the weapon combination for you! With the ability to engage from over 24m away, Greatsword / Crossbow can leap into fights with an AoE stun and spin around the battlefield like a Beyblade! Annihilation Barrage Shot gives stacks of Gale which explodes at 10 stacks. Against a single target, Gale Explosions may not do much, but when many people are grouped in a small area, each player takes damage from all nearby Gale Explosions. This damage can also be increased exponentially!

End Game Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build

If you're interested in PvE, check out our Greatsword / Crossbow PvE Build Guide!

Pros

High Hit
High AoE
High Mobility
High Survivability
High amounts of CC

Cons

No Stealth
Predictable Engage
Lower Base Critical Hit
Lower Base Critical Damage

Skill Builds

Large and Small Scale PvP

In large scale PvP the goal is to dive the backline and try to pick off as many people as possible with Annihilation Barrage Shot. Coordinating pushes with your guild and party members is key!

Some skills appear different in the Tooltip due to its Skill Specialization.

Detonation Mark = Mortal Mark
Annihilation Barrage Shot = Wild Barrage

Active Skills

Damage Skills

Quick Fire - Paired with Mother Nature's Protest, this skill is great for single target damage before getting in Melee range.
Annihilation Barrage Shot - THE AoE skill! Whenever you see a clump of enemies, jump in there before they can expect it. The closer everybody is together, the more damage you do since Gale Explosions can do damage to everybody in the surrounding area.
Guillotine Blade - Heavy hitting single target damage skill. Be sure to CC the target before using this skill.

Buffs/Debuffs

DaVinci's Courage - This skill can be used offensively, or saved to act as a big defensive heal.
Mother Nature's Protest - Having this on when you use Annihilation Barrage Shot further increases the amount of Gale stacks you put on the target.
- For higher single target damage, consider Lightning Arrow Skill Specialization instead.
Mortal Mark - Ideally, you'd use this before starting your burst.

CC + Mobility Skills

Devastating Smash - This is your core Ranged Engage as it can land an AoE stun. Using Nimble Leap before this skill increases the range you can use this skill by a little bit.
Stunning Blow - This is an important skill because even if the target immunes the stun, you shock them and gain the bonus damage from your passive skill.
Nimble Leap - With the Skill Specializations, this skill is usable twice and also gains CC immunity for 0.5s on use. Use it sparingly when kiting or trying to avoid CC.
- Nimble Leap's Whirlpool allows you to gain additional Gale stacks so be sure to use it right before Annihilation Barrage Shot to increase the number of explosions you do.
Precision Dash - While being an unblockable Bind with the Skill Specializations, you can re-use it a 2nd time if activated again within a few seconds. This makes it a big engage tool.
Selfless Infiltration - While you can use this offensively, it's best to save this to break CC's. This is similar to a "trinket" from other MMO's that acts as a partial CC Break.
- You cannot get up from Prone, but you can use it to break Stuns.
Ascending Slash - Using this after Precision Dash is fast and hard for players with higher ping to react to.

Passive Skills

Vital Force - Combined with Adentus's Savage Blade you get a ton of additional damage.
Cold Warrior - Important to increase your damage on CC'd targets.
Victor's Morale - This allows you to maintain your Mana when divebombing the backline.
Robust Constitution - More Health = More DMG + Survivability.
Ambidexterity - This is a strong passive that increases your Crossbow damage.
Nature's Power - With access to two mobility skills that have low enough cooldowns, you are almost able to permanently keep this buff up if stacking high enough Buff Duration.
Detection - This skill procs quite often in large scale, so it helps if you are stacking Evasion.
Piercing Strike - Your main Crossbow Skill does many hits so the bonus damage should increase overall DPS.
Raging Frenzy - You can replace this skill with Piercing Strike whenever you're doing more Small Scale PvP content.

Skill Prioritization

This is a general list of skills used across all forms of content that's recommended to upgrade.
- Should there be a skill here that you don't ever plan to use in your build, skip it.
Use Quality Skill Growth Books to upgrade your skills from Green to Blue in the order shown below. Once all skills below are Green, use the rest on other skills used in the builds above.
Use Rare Skill Growth Books to upgrade your skills from Blue to Purple in the order shown below. Once all skills below are Blue, use the rest on other skills used in the builds above.
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

Greatsword / Crossbow has multiple different ways of securing kills. Your playstyle doesn't change between Large Scale and Small Scale PvP. The only real difference is that in Large Scale you can take advantage of the chaos and land an AoE stun with Devastating Smash easier. In Small Scale PvP it's a bit easier to spot the animation for the AoE Stun so you tend to be more successful using other engages like Precision Dash.

Large and Small Scale

Ranged AOE Stun Engage

DaVinci's Courage
Devastating Smash
Nimble Leap
Annihilation Barrage Shot

For Large Scale, move Skill Specialization points from Detonation Mark to Devastating Smash for additional Stun Chance.
You can increase the engage range by using Precision Dash before Devastating Smash.
You can save DaVinci's Courage and use it defensively if need be.
Damage from Gale Explosions scale with the amount of players in the area.
- For example, If 5 people get hit and proc an explosion of each person, that's 5 explosions worth of damage dealt to all the users in that area.

Single Target Combo

Mortal Mark
Quick Fire
Nimble Leap
Quick Fire
Precision Dash
Ascending Slash
Guillotine Blade

Devastating Smash can be used instead of Precision Dash and Ascending Slash.
- However, it's easy to see coming so there are higher chances of the enemies Perfect Blocking it.
- Alternatively, use Devastating Smash as a follow-up CC after Guillotine Blade.
Lightning Arrow would do higher single target damage compared to Gale Arrow.
Nimble Leap has great utility as it can be used to reset Quick Fire or be used as a short burst of CC Immunity.
- Use Nimble Leap based on what the situation calls for but keep in mind you only have 2 charges.

Stat Priorities

Use the following stat priorities when using this Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build Guide:

Primary Stat
- Strength
Secondary Stats
- Dexterity and Perception

You have 49 Stat Points to distribute however you see fit, and gear gives additional stat points that you cannot change. It's free to reset the Stat Points so that you can "respec" whenever you need to as you progress and swap out items. Above are the main Stats you should prioritize with the given builds in this Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build Guide.

Greatsword / Crossbow gains a number of buffs when stacking HP. The Greatsword's skills and passives also allow you to reach high amounts of Heavy Attack Chance. Due to these reasons, Strength is one of the most valuable Stat Attributes to stack.

Mid-Game

Your first goal is to hit 50 Strength and 40 Dexterity. As a Greatsword / Crossbow user, you care mainly about increased Heavy Attack, HP, Critical Hit, Attack Speed, and Maximum Weapon Damage. First, put points towards Strength for the added HP and Heavy Attack Chance. Secondly, place points into Dexterity to gain the additional Critical Hit and Bonus Damage to ensure high damage on your Crossbow skills.

End Game

With Purple Gear in the End Game, we can reach all of our desired Stat Breakpoints. Getting 50 - 60 Strength grants even higher HP and 100 Heavy Attack which can give you higher chances at doing double damage. 30 - 40 Perception increases Hit and Buff Duration to ensure you're able to maintain your buffs and always land your debuffs. Finally, 40 - 50 Dexterity grants increased Critical Hit, Bonus Damage, and high amounts of Attack Speed before using our buffs.

Gear Progression

If ever there's a chance to obtain Tevent's Despair Blade or Queen Bellandir's Annihilation Crossbow, get them and use no matter what.

If you're interested in PvE Gear Progression, check out our Greatsword / Crossbow PvE Builds!

The next time these builds will be revamped entirely will be when T2 Epic gear comes out.
No more changes will be made to this gear until T2 gear comes in January or earlier.
IF YOU ALREADY HAVE MOST OF THE ARCHIVED GEAR, STICK WITH IT UNTIL T2.
- Rune Synergies will still work with any gear.

Early Game

Mid Game

End Game Builds

Archived Builds

Early Game
Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build

If you followed our Leveling Guide for Greatsword / Crossbow, you may have some of these pieces already.

Most of this gear is replaced very quickly so don't stress too much unless you plan on PvP'ing a lot in the first week or two of the game.

Don't go out of your way to trait this build out, if you want to PvP work towards the Mid Game build as soon as possible.

Gear Sources

Elite Resistance Broadsword or Elite Resistance Crossbow is obtained from the Main Story Quest.
- Whichever one wasn't obtained, can be receive by completing their Lithograph Book entries.
  - Bigger, Better Greatswords
  - Bows that Pierce the Target
Elite Assassin's Cloak
- Dropped by mobs in Purelight Hill
Elite Resistance Mask
- Main Story Quest reward
- Hawk's Eye Lithograph Book entry
Special Resistance Tactical Armor
- Main Story Quest reward
- Armor of Unfaltering Protection Lithograph Book entry
- Dropped by mobs in Shattered Temple
Lethal Fortune Ring
- Complete Rustic Mother Nature Rings Lithograph Book entry
- Cursed Wasteland Co-Op Dungeon
Elite Tracker's Belt
- Complete Sources of Abdominal Strength! Lithograph Book entry
- Evil Eye in Manawastes

Mid Game Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build

As you progress further into the game, you gather more gear with flat Stat buffs and Dexterity to boost your raw damage. It's also more costly to trait due to the low supply in the early game.

You might find yourself still using green accessories and know THAT'S OK.

Transition to gear dropped from Dungeons as you play the game.

Elite Resistance weapons should be used only as a placeholder while working towards Dungeon Weapons.
Elite Resistance Broadsword or Elite Resistance Crossbow is obtained from the Main Story Quest.
- Whichever one wasn't obtained, can be receive by completing their Lithograph Book entries.
  - Bigger, Better Greatswords
  - Bows that Pierce the Target

Gear Sources

Replacing your weapons with Dungeon Weapons result in the highest damage upgrade.
- Butcher's Canyon Co-Op Dungeon
  - Duke Magna's Taunting Blade
- Temple of Slaughter Co-Op Dungeon
  - Rex Chimaerus's Rake Bow
Eternal Ring of Dimension
- Obtained by crafting Recipe: Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest
  - Craft Dimensional Essence: Salvation by gaining 10 Boss Tokens from each T1 Dungeon.
Elite Assassin's Cloak
- Dropped by mobs in Purelight Hill
Elite Resistance Visor
- Main Story Quest reward
- Overhead Protection Lithograph Book entry
- Orc Brawler in Fonos Basin
Special Resistance Tactical Armor
- Main Story Quest reward
- Armor of Unfaltering Protection Lithograph Book entry
- Dropped by mobs in Shattered Temple
Cursed Wasteland Co-Op Dungeon
- Flying Dragon Scale Gloves
- Reflection Breakthrough Leather Boots
Cave of Destruction Co-Op Dungeon
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers

These are Rune Builds for when Runes come out on December 5th; these builds assume you will eventually reach the full blue Rune Synergy effect for Weapons and Accessories.
- Hover over the Weapons and Accessories to see the recommended Runes.
For non-rune builds, visit the dropdown at the bottom.

Melee Evasion
Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build

Ranged / Magic Evasion
Greatsword / Crossbow PvP Build

Both these builds can work however, Melee Evasion builds tend to require sacrificing additional damage from Gear Sets such as the Critical Damage from the Death Set or additional Bonus Damage from the Ghost Wolf Set.
- Melee Evasion builds also sacrifice Hit.
The Ranged / Magic Evasion build can work as an Endurance build by swapping the traits around however, Endurance is hard to stack alot of without having a Longbow due to their passive skill.
- Evasion only works when higher than the enemy's Hit.
  - Detection's tooltip has been bugged for over a year and only has a 10% chance to proc.
Most users prefer Melee Evasion builds in Arenas.

Rune Building Philosophy

Critical Damage Reduction, Attack Speed or Shield Block Chance Pierce
- Critical Damage Reduction counters the Critical Damage Increase from Death Set and other sources.
  - This doesn't really synergize well when stacking evasions as you're trying not to be hit in general.
Shield Block Chance Pierce counters Sword and Shield Block Chance.
Attack Speed allows for faster combos outside of your spin-to-win.

STR, PER, DEX, or WIS
- + PER is to reach higher amounts of Perception to get more Hit.
- + DEX is purely an offensive Rune Synergy effect.
- + STR is helpful to hit 50 Strength if you need it.

Usually, players take runes depending on the stat they need to hit the necessary breakpoints. Opting for + PER Rune Synergies will allow you to hit 60 Perception easier.

Max Health or Critical Hit Damage Reduction Rune Synergies
- A higher health pool will give you more effective HP than Critical Hit Damage Reduction.

Priority Rune Stats

Attack Runes
- Hit Chance and Heavy Attack Chance
Defense Runes
- Evasion, Max Health, Heavy Attack Evasion
Support Runes
- Skill Damage Resistance.

No Runes Versions

Gear Sources (CLICK ME!)

Melee Evasion
Global Launch Version

Ranged / Magic Evasion
Global Launch Version

Melee Evasion
No Field Boss Alternative

Ranged / Magic Evasion
No Field Boss Alternative

Guardians

Guardians are special transformations that add offensive or defensive buffs or attacks to your character for 30 seconds. These are the recommended Guardians for Greatsword / Crossbow.

Lady Knight Kamarshea is a useful Guardian that gives you a shield on engage.
- Perfect for times that require more survivability!
Shade Revenant Stheno - This guardian launches projectiles every second and can Crit and Heavy Attack! The projectiles also synergize well with Mother Nature's Protest because each projectile launched also shoots another with this skill!

Summary

Greatsword / Crossbow allows you to Dive Bomb groups of enemies with an AoE Stun followed by a "Spin to Win" type of move attacking all enemies in the area!
Greatsword's skills and passives allow you to stack high amounts of Heavy Attack Chance, Hit, and Skill Damage Boost!
Stacking HP not only gives you increased survivability but also grants increased damage!
While having high offensive stats, you feel pretty tanky with the amount of HP and Evasion/Endurance you gain with these builds.

Gameplay

Credits

Written by Bloo
Reviewed by Dredscythe