Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build Guide
Last Updated:April 17, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Crusader Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build Guide! This is the big brawler Tank in Throne and Liberty. The build leverages the strengths of both weapons for a ton of extra Health and Heavy Attack Chance.
Sword and Shield / Greatswords has some of the best AoE farming potential in the game due to passives like Spectrum of Agony and active skills that can cleave off each other such as Frost Cleaving and Ice Tornado.
For bossing, Greatsword provides one of the strongest buffs in the game Devoted Sanctuary. As a tank, you not only redirect 70% of your group's damage taken to yourself, but you can also significantly increase your party's damage all in one skill.
Due to the high cooldowns in this weapon combo, you make use of Morale Boost and Collison skills such as Strategic Rush to be able to lower your cooldowns.
T2 End Game Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
If you're interested in PvP, check out our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build Guide!
PvE Gear Progression
If you plan on PvPing in the future, just use the PvP gear shown in our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build Guide for PvE. Unless you're going for record clears, you can use the PvP gear to clear all content.
End Game
2-Pc Imperial/Oblivion
No Field Boss Budget
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
Expensive Nirma
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
Fully trait your blue gear before transferring over to purple gear. A fully traited blue piece will give you 960 Blessings for you to use.
As you approach End Game, you complete the build with Death Set and the Imperator Set.
- You're already tanky as it is with all your passives and armor. Considering that, you use Death Set for more damage to help speed up the run of your Dungeons.
- Greaves of the Field General completes your Imperator Set for the extra 150 Heavy Attack Chance.
Gear Sources
- Gauntlets of the Field General
- Aridus
- Reptilian Soldier in Saurodoma Island
- Voidwastes
- Shadow Harvester Boots
- Carmine Rage Island
- Avolos Tracker in Sanctum of Desire
- Band of the Chosen One
- Island of Terror
- Bracers of Unrelenting
- Valley of Slaughter
- Greaves of the Field General
- Lycan Kowazan
- Torture Chamber of Secrets (Dec. 5)
- Belt of Bloodlust
- Aridus
- Nirma's Corrupt Sword
- Nirma
- Adentus's Barbaric Blade
- Adentus
- Shadow Harvester Mask
- Adentus
- Valley of Slaughter
- Forsaken Embrace
- Junobote
- The ideal build to choose is heavily dependent on your server meta.
- Talandre Gear offers many different gear pieces from which you can choose.
- Use these builds as a base and swap different pieces depending on your need.
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
Stats and Gearing Logic
- This build is a triple Endurance with high Attack Speed, Critical Hit and Heavy Attack.
- This build is running ~50% Attack Speed which will help sustain aggro and provide great sustain damage.
- You will have ~1000 Critical Hit which synergizes with the Imperial Seeker Set for the increased Critical Damage.
- You reach 1200+ Heavy Attack Chance for 50%+ proc rate.
Non-Field Boss Alternative
- Oblivion's Wrath Gauntlets and Oblivion's Wrath Stompers.
- Shadow Harvester Grips and Shadow Harvester Boots.
Skill Builds and Rotation
Blood Devotion Alternative
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Always use Gaia Crash before Guillotine Blade to make use of the additional Attack Speed.
- Guillotine Blade is your big single target burst skill.
- Piercing Attack is your spammable single target Sword and Shield damage skill.
- This lets you easily hold Aggro/Threat and use it on cooldown.
- Weave in Cruel Smite when Piercing Attack is on cooldown to ensure you keep your threat high on the boss.
Utility Skills
- Devoted Sanctuary offers 50 more Base Damage to your party while you adsorb 70% of their damage taken.
- DaVinci's Courage buffs your party.
- The Max Health given by DaVinci's Courage acts as a heal for all your party members.
- Chain Hook groups mobs together and can be used as a gap closer against bosses.
Passive Skills
- Resilient Mind and Victor's Morale are phenomenal Passive skills that allow you to sustain your Mana during long boss encounters.
- Vital Force and Robust Constitution offer free stat boosts.
- Indomitable Armor and Aegis Shield provide you with a ton of defense rating with zero additional effort.
Alternatives
- If you want to provide a damage buff for your DPS, you can run Devoted Sanctuary over Death Blow.
Opening Rotation
- DaVinci's Courage
- Piercing Attack
- Cruel Smite
- Willbreaker
- Death Blow
- Gaia Crash
- Guillotine Blade
- Piercing Attack
- Pre-buffing with DaVinci's Courage gives you and your party increased Attack Speed at the start of the fight.
- It's important to weave in Piercing Attack and Cruel Smite where you can maintain boss Aggro.
Single Target Burst
- Gaia Crash
- Guillotine Blade
- Piercing Attack (Optional)
- Cruel Smite (Optional)
- Always use Gaia Crash before Guillotine Blade the additional Attack Speed buff.
Defense Shred
- Willbreaker
- Be sure to use Willbreaker last to gain the most value from the uptime of the debuff.
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Frost Cleaving and Ice Tornado are your two big AoE skills.
- Annihilating Slash is another AoE skill you use on higher health mobs.
- Weave Cruel Smite into your rotation while your hard hitters are on cooldown.
- Piercing Attack is your spammable frontal AoE cleave.
Utility Skills
- When Specialized Willbreaker becomes a full AoE skill that lowers the defense of all the mobs around you. This will happen normally as you group and AoE mobs down.
- Use Strategic Rush to reset your cooldowns alongside the Morale Boost passive.
Passive Skills
- Morale Boost is one of your most important passives. This is used to reduce the cooldowns of your skills when using Collision Skills
- Raging Frenzy provides a significant Skill Damage Boost depending on the amount of mobs that are around you.
AoE Combo
- DaVinci's Courage
- Willbreaker
- Frost Cleaving
- Annihilating Slash (Optional)
- Ice Tornado
- This is your basic AoE Combo.
- Use Annihilating Slash when mobs have higher HP.
- This rotation gives you the buff from DaVinci's Courage for the added Damage Reduction and Attack Speed for the entirety of your combo.
Tips
- Save Strategic Rush to help reset your cooldowns with the Morale Boost passive.
- Use Chain Hook to round up any ranged mobs you were unable to group.
- Stalwart Bastion is used for additional Damage Reduction if some pulls get spicy.
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. These are universal skills you always use.
- Upgrade the rest of your skills as you play the game.
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 Sword and Shield and Greatsword have passives that complement each other perfectly making for a highly effective PvE tank build.
- The bossing build revolves around buffing your team with Devoted Sanctuary while also dealing punishing single target damage.
- The AoE farming capabilities of this combo are extremely high. With a very large health pool and a great ability kit, open world farming will be a breeze.
Credits
Written by Tweekz
Reviewed by Tenkiei, Yaen