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Staff / Dagger PvE Build Guide

Last Updated:December 12, 2024|Changelog

Welcome to the Spellblade Staff / Dagger PvE Build Guide! This is the closest you get to playing a Mage Assassin in Throne and Liberty. The build leverages the strengths of both weapons for satisfying, single-target burst damage comparable to other weapon combinations.

At its full potential, Staff provides up to 200 extra Heavy Attack Chance and 150 extra Skill Damage Boost. Thanks to the Dagger Passives Assassin's Instincts, Destructive Fang, and Wrathful Edge, your Judgment Lightning and Thundercloud Bombing hits like a truck.

Due to the high cooldowns in this build, you need plenty of Cooldown Speed for this build to feel good. Without high Cooldown Speed, you have downtime where a DPS skill isn't up for use. Grouping with a Longbow user with Deadly Marker should alleviate this issue.

End Game Staff / Dagger PvE Build w/ Runes

If you're interested in PvP, check out our Staff Dagger PvP Build Guide!

Pros
  • High Mobility
  • High AoE Damage
  • High Burst Damage
Cons
  • Requires High CDS
  • Heavy Attack Reliant

Skill Builds

Bossing
Melee Range
Bossing
Ranged Only
High HP
Mobbing
  • You use this skill build in Melee Range only.
  • Lightning Infusion let's all your skills apply Thunderclouds stacks.
    • Consume 20 stacks with Thunderclouds Bombing as much as possible.
  • Always use Cleaving Moonlight for the additional Attack Speed buff.
    • Don't spend your second charge until the Attack Speed buff is about to expire because using the skill again consumes the buff.
    • Once you acquire Lequirus's Thorny Edge, Cleaving Moonlight also procs the passive for additional 50 Base Damage.
  • You want to play mainly in Melee range. On stationary bosses, ensure you don't move around too much to get the 100 Heavy Attack Chance from Asceticism.
  • Hellfire Rain gets you to high Burn stacks to activate Flame Condensation.
  • If you proc Off-Hand Attack for Thunderclouds Bombing, Cooldown ▼ will activate twice. In this case, getting 20 Thundercloud stacks again as quickly as possible is important.
    • Fireball Barrage and Ice Spear Bombardment will help with this.
  • Running out of Mana is extremely easy, so use Inner Peace as much as possible.

Global Cooldown Priority

  1. Lightning Infusion
  2. High Focus
  3. Hellfire Rain
  4. Focused Fire Bombs
  5. Cleaving Moonlight
  6. Thunderclouds Bombing
  7. Judgment Lightning
  • Hellfire Rain, Focused Fire Bombs, Judgment Lightning, and Thunderclouds Bombing are your hardest hitting skills.
  • Never use the 2nd use of Cleaving Moonlight to upkeep your Attack Speed buff.
  • This is a laidback Ranged playstyle that never goes into Melee.
  • The damage output is much lower with this build.
  • You just need to be conscious of getting into range of Fatal Stigma.
    • Make sure to always have Inject Venom on to stack Poison.
  • Icebound Tomb is a utility skill for various dungeons. Feel free to replace it with something else if you need to.

Global Cooldown Priority

  1. Inject Venom
  2. High Focus
  3. Hellfire Rain
  4. Focused Fire Bombs
  5. Judgment Lightning
  6. Fatal Stigma
  • Spam these skills as much as possible.
  • There's no explanation here. Just spam your skills as much as possible.
  • If you have Queen Bellandir's Hivemind Staff then take off Focused Fire Bombs off of Focused Fire Bombs and use Serial Fire Bombs instead.
    • Use the standard version of Inferno Wave as well.

Skill Prioritization

  • Use Quality Marind Ore to craft Quality Passive Skill Growth Book and Quality Active Skill Growth Book
  • Use Rare Marind Ore to craft Rare Passive Skill Growth Book and Rare Active Skill Growth Book.
  • Prioritize getting all these skills to blue first before getting them to purple.

Stat Priorities

Use the following stat priorities when playing a Staff / Dagger build in PVE:

  • Primary Stat
    • Dexterity, Wisdom, and Strength
  • Secondary Stat
    • 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.

Dexterity not only adds maximum Weapon Damage but also increases your Crit Chance, Evasion, and Attack Speed. Increasing Dexterity is your best method of increasing your damage output. Wisdom is the next best stat for improving your Weapon Damage. Each added point into Wisdom also provides extra Cooldown Speed and Mana Regen.

Early Mid Game

For PvE, you care mainly about maximum damage output. Put as many points into Dexterity and Wisdom for the early damage output. You won't be able to reach any major breakpoints other than 30 Dexterity. 50 Strength will give you 100 extra Heavy Attack Chance, and 40 Perception will give you 5% extra Buff Duration. These are your 2 primary stats to work towards with Dexterity being a tertiary stat.

Mid End Game

With enough Purple Gear, you can now reach 50 Strength for the 100 extra Heavy Attack Chance and 40 Perception for the 5% extra Buff Duration. These are your 2 primary stats to work towards, with your remaining points into Dexterity and Wisdom.

PvE Gear Progression

If you plan on PvPing in the future, just use the PvP gear shown in our Staff/Dagger PvP Build Guide for PvE. Unless you're going for record clears, you can use the PvP gear to clear all content.

  • 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.
    • This doesn't mean I won't add gear.
  • With Material Transmutation out, every piece of accessory is accessible. Thus, the "No Field Boss" gear versions will be archived in the archived tab.
Story
Gear
Mid
Game
End Game
Shadow Harvester
End Game
Archboss
Old Archived
End Game Builds

Story Gear Staff / Dagger PvE Build

If you've been following the leveling guide, transfer over your greens to the story quest blues if you haven't done so already. Make sure to upgrade them before doing these Dungeons for items. It does not matter what Blue gear you have as you will be replacing them shortly.

DO NOT UPGRADE Heroic Armor of the Resistance. Leave it at 0.

You should do contracts immediately to acquire Contract Coins so you can buy Quality Lithograph: Weapons, Quality Lithograph: Armor, and Quality Lithograph: Accessories to craft Green Gear to complete Lithograph Book entries for Blue Gear.

  • Make sure you have enough materials to craft by taking some contracts that reward you Rare Base Material Selection Chest and Rare Polished Crystal.
  • If you happen to Crit craft an item (20%), sell the item on the Auction House for Lucent.

Lithograph Book

  • Elite Resistance Staff
    • Staves from Archwizard
  • Elite Resistance Knife
    • Sharp Blades that Cut Through Darkness
  • Lethal Fortune Ring
    • Rustic Mother Nature Rings
  • Elite Sharpshooter's Cloak
    • Cloaks that Wield Victory
    • Dark Assassin in Shadowed Crypt

Mid Game Staff / Dagger PvE Build

Your Mid Game build is the point from where you should farm 1-Star Co-Op Dungeons and the Open World Dungeons for gear.

You will see that there was a jump from Blue to Purple gear in the Early to Mid Game. Below are easily farmable blue armor piece replacements. For accessories, use whatever blues you want.

  • Duskblood Gloves
  • Resolute Crusader Sabatons

Before transferring upgrading your Purple pieces, fully trait and upgrade a Blue gear piece first and use it to transfer over to your Purple piece. A fully traited blue piece will give you 960 Blessings for you to use.

You can use the cheapest Blue gear pieces you can find with the cheapest Traits. Because there is no recommended Blue piece for accessories, you can use any Blue accessory you want. Just make it sure it's easy to trait the item.

Your Goals

  • Farm accessible gear by doing Open World Dungeons.
  • Extract traits from gear for Lucent.
  • Turn important Purple Gear acquired from Co-Op Dungeons into Lithographs and sell them on the Auction House.

Stats

  • Put as many points into Dexterity and Wisdom as possible.

Traits

  • Prioritize damage traits.
  • Acquire Trait Unlockstone through Recipe: Common Trait Unlockstone Bundle.

Dungeon Farming Priority

Whatever blue armor pieces you wear don't matter for PvE, as they are placeholders until your End Game gear. Use whatever blue pieces you want.

  1. Cave of Destruction
    • Lequirus's Thorny Edge
    • Archpriest's Devotion
  2. Eternal Ring of Dimension
    • Comes from Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest.
      • Requires Dimensional Essence: Salvation.
      • You need 10 Tokens from each Co-Op Dungeon to craft.
  3. Tyrant's Isle
    • Specter's Frost Bracers
    • Toublek's Thunderous Soul

Open World Dungeon Sources

  1. Ant Nest
    • Elusive Hexweaver Hat from Worker Ant
  2. Shadowed Crypt
    • Duskblood Trousers from Dark Wizard
  3. Saurodoma Island
    • Duskblood Gloves from Reptilian Lancer
    • Gauntlets of the Field General from Reptilian Soldier
  4. Sanctum of Desire
    • Ornate Choker from Avolos Aeromancer
    • Shadow Harvester Boots from Avolos Tracker

Budget Staff / Dagger PvE Build w/ Runes

Expensive Staff / Dagger PvE Build w/ Runes

  • Imperator Set gives 150 extra Melee Heavy Attack Chance.

Weapon

You have a couple options: Toublek's Shattering Quarterstaff, Staff of the Umbramancer, Talus's Resonance Staff or Aridus's Gnarled Voidstaff.

  • The first two are easier to acquire, whereas the last 2 drop from Field Bosses.

PvE Stats and Traits

  • You have incredibly high Attack Speed combined with high Cooldown Speed to cast your skills as fast as possible.
  • Your Critical Hit Chance is buffed further by Sniper's Sense.
  • Evasion traits are unimportant for Bossing. If you want Evasion traits, trait Melee Evasion first and the rest afterward. Evasion traits are nice if you intend to solo farm Open World Dungeons or Events.
  • You focus on DPS Traits like Skill Damage Boost and Heavy Attack Chance.
  • You focus on Max Health and Skill Damage Resistance for defensive Traits.
  • Mana Regen is also an excellent trait to prioritize if you find yourself lacking Mana. Inner Peace usually takes care of your mana issues.

Gear Alternatives (Click Me!)

Gear Sources (Click Me!)

End Game Staff / Dagger PvE Build

  • Your Archboss build is essentially just swapping the weapon.
  • These were the old End Game builds before 2-Star Dungeons came out. THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY BIS.
  • The main difference between the new builds and the old builds is the increased Attack Speed.
  • You can still spec out Rune Synergies for this build.

Archived Toublek Staff / Dagger PvE Build

Archived Aridus Staff / Dagger PvE Build

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 this class.

  • Shade Revenant Stheno is THE DPS Guardian in PvE. No other explanation is required.
  • Lady Knight Kamarshea is a useful Guardian while you learn new dungeons. It helps in dangerous situations as an emergency button to survive mechanics that deal a significant amount of damage. Not many other situations arise where this is necessary.

Summary

  • Both Staff and Dagger passives help make the Staff / Dagger weapon combination into a high burst PVE build.
  • The build revolves around maintaining 10 Burning stacks and 20 Thunderclouds stacks for high damage output.
  • The Staff / Dagger build has both high single-target damage and exceptional AoE. Dungeons and Dynamic Events are not a problem for this build.

Credits

Written by Yaen
Reviewed by Tenkiei and Nymphellas

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