Welcome to the 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 Health and Heavy Attack Chance.
At its full potential, 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 can 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 coolowns. Grouping with a Longbow user with Deadly Marker should alleviate this issue.
End Game Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
If you're interested in PvP, check out our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build Guide!
- High HP
- High AoE Damage
- High Burst Damage
- Long CDS
- Heavy Attack Reliant
Skill Builds
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 allow you to easily hold threat, 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
- With the correct Specialization Devoted Sanctuary offers 50 more Base Damage to your party, and 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 find you are not hitting your Gaia Crash often enough you can opt for Death Blow instead for a pure single target option.
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.
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.
PvE Gameplay and Skill Rotation
Opening Rotation
- DaVinci's Courage
- Piercing Attack
- Devoted Sanctuary
- Provoking Roar
- Willbreaker
- Gaia Crash
- Guillotine Blade
- Piercing Attack
- Cruel Smite
- 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 to 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
- Provoking Roar
- Willbreaker
- These two abilities come off cooldown at the same time. Be sure to use Willbreaker last to gain the most value from the uptime of the debuff.
Tips
- You must always be at Melee range when bossing.
- If your Provoking Roar falls off the boss immediately recast it to maintain aggro on the boss.
- Certain boss fights have mobs you need to kill. As a tank you must stay in melee range as most bosses do a party wide AoE when their target is not within melee range. Chain Hook is used to group up these mobs while staying in melee range, it also maxes out the boss's Aggression, forcing the boss to attack you. Use this in the event that you mismanaged your cooldowns and lost boss aggro.
AoE Combo
- DaVinci's Courage
- Willbreaker
- Provoking Roar
- 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.
Stat Priorities
Use the following stat priorities when playing a Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build:
- Primary Stat
- Dexterity and Strength
- Secondary Stat
- Wisdom 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.
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. Strength is however your best stat to put points into as soon as possible. Not only will it increase your Max Health, Min Damage, and Max Damage, and Health Regen but due to Vital Force you will get additional Skill Damage Boost with every 100 Max Health you add. 30 Dexterity gives you 120 extra Critical Hit.
Mid Game
For PvE, you care mainly about maximum damage output and Health so put points into Dexterity and Strength. Reaching 50 Strength grants you a 100 Heavy Attack Chance as well as the additional Health.
End Game
With enough Purple Gear, you can optimally hit certain stat breakpoints. 60 Strength grants you an additional 900 Max Health. 30 Wisdom will give you some additional Max Mana and Cooldown Speed.
Gear Progression
If you're interested in PvP Gear Progression, check out our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build Guide here!
Solo Self Found
Early Game Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
Almost every piece in this build can be farmed via the Lithograph Book. The other pieces are blue drops from the leveling dungeons as well as the early game endgame dungeons!
So let's go into what you can get easily as upgrades right as you hit Level 50.
- Elite Resistance Broadsword from completing theBigger, Better Greatswords Lithograph Book entry.
- Lethal Fortune Ring from the Rustic Mother Nature Rings Lithograph Book entry.
- Elite Sharpshooter's Cloak from the Cloaks that Wield Victory Lithograph Book entry.
- Elite Resistance Plate Armor from the Shiny Metal Armor Lithograph Book entry.
Alternatives
- If traiting the Elite Resistance Broadsword and the Elite Resistance Sword is too difficult, you can opt to run Deadly Single Edge Two-Handed Sword and Berserk Charge Blade instead.
Non-Milestone
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
Milestone
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
If you're following this guide from when the game launches, you won't be able to acquire some Purple pieces due to Open World Dungeons being gated by Milestones. This means you're unable to acquire a few purple pieces until later in the game. The left build shows what pieces you can acquire without Open World Dungeons, and the right build shows what pieces you can acquire once the server reaches certain Milestones.
The Milestone build uses Transcendent Magic Ring. These are acquired from sources that unlock from Milestones, but it is possible to acquire them earlier by using Substance Transformation. Accessories are the easiest ones to acquire from Substance Transformation.
You don't have to worry about Traits too much. If you are looking to do more damage, fill out your weapon Traits and Skill Damage Boost traits for your accessories. If you see yourself lacking Health focus on the Max Health Traits for your weapons and armor.
Non-Milestone Dungeon Farming Priority
- Death's Abyss
- Karnix's Nether Sword
- Dark Warrior's Visor
- Darkness Distorted Plate Boots
- Butcher's Canyon
- Duke Magna's Taunting Blade
- Butcher's Belt
- Cave of Destruction
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Tyrant's Isle
- Grand General's Unbeaten Armor
- Deadly Strike Iron Gloves
Milestone Farming Priority
With 40 Abyss Currency, you are able to craft one of the four Precious Epic Equipment Chest and pick the piece you want.
- Sanctum of Desire
- Reaper's Footsteps (Avolos Tracker, Avolos Umbramancer)
- Saurodoma Island
- General's Frenzy Gloves (Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Tyrant, Reptilian Soldier, Reptilian Butcher)
- Abyss Conqueror's Necklace
- Substance Transformation
- Craft Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss.
- Insightful Ring of Dimension (Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest)
- Transcendent Magic Ring (Queen Bellandir) (Substance Transformation)
No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
With Rune Synergies and Resonance
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
- The General's set gets you an additional 150 Melee Heavy Attack Chance.
- You focus on DPS traits like Skill Damage Boost and Heavy Attack Chance. Max Health and Skill Damage Resistance are important to surviving in the more challenging dungeons, especially for the T2 Dungeons that are coming in the future.
- However, you can acquire all the pieces through Substance Transformation, this works best for accessories. Most players sell spare accessories at the Auction House. But like other MMOs, early adopters may find it much more expensive. The prices decrease as the server goes on.
- This set takes some time to complete, so take it slow! It's not a race!
Gear Sources
- Adentus's Barbaric Blade(Adentus)
- Grand General's Invincibility Gaiters (Kowazan)
- Transcendent Magic Ring (Queen Bellandir) (Substance Transformation)
- Commandant's Grandeur (Junobote)
SSF End Game
Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build
- This setup allows you to acquire all the pieces yourself through grinding. You do not need to use the Auction House or Substance Transformation.
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 Grenton
Reviewed by Tenkiei, Yaen