Welcome to the Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build Guide. As a tank you are brawling in the thick of it with your guild. Sword and Shield / Greatsword is what most people would refer to when they think of a "Traditional Tank" in Throne and Liberty. A walking juggernaut that frontlines and provides a ton of utility to their party through Damage Reduction and AoE CCs such as Devastating Smash.
With Greatsword passives like Vital Force and Robust Constitution, stacking Health allows you to increase a plethora of your Stats allowing you to do your job better than other tanks.
End Game Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build
If you're interested in PvE, check out our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build Guide!
- High Damage
- Stong AoE CC
- Extremely Tanky
- Melee
- CC Magnet
- Low Self Sustain
Skill Builds
This Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build focuses on being a "Bruiser" or Frontliner for your group. You go going toe-to-toe with your enemies, setting up kills for your team with constant stuns and hooks, and you can secure your own kills with the high damage skills that Greatsword offers.
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Frost Cleaving is a very strong AoE.
- Death Blow is a low cooldown skill with great single target damage.
- Guillotine Blade with the charging Skill Specialization hits hard, additionally adding the AoE Skill Specialization adds great cleave to the skill as well.
- Piercing Attack is your lowest cooldown damage skill, with a frontal cleave. It can be used in rapid succession if you are being hit and have Counter Barrier active.
Utility Skills
- Counter Barrier is your bread and butter defensive. It allows you to reset the cooldown on Piercing Attack increases your shield block chance and reflects damage to your attackers.
- Chain Hook is a great way to isolate and lock down ranged DPS players as well as peel for your team.
- Stalwart Bastion gives you bonus Move Speed and provides a very strong Damage Reduction buff to yourself with the Skill Specializations.
- Precision Dash is your number one mobility skill. It allows you to move toward the enemy ball and connect with them quicker than most tanks. Additionally, you can use this to escape a dicey situation.
- Stunning Blow is a single target stun. Use this to peel for your team or lock down a kill target.
- Strategic Rush is another mobility skill; however, this also allows you to push and charge enemies into walls or off of terrain.
Passive Skills
- Greatsword has access to one of the strongest passives in the game. Vital Force increases your Hit, Skill Damage Boost, as well as Stun Chance based on your Max Health.
- As a tank, you get hit a lot, so Indomitable Armor increases your defenses while active.
- Slotting in Robust Constitution complements Vital Force.
- Your Heavy Attack Chance is particularly high on Greatsword, as Cold Warrior gives you a massive damage bonus against targets you Stun with Stunning Blow.
- Resilient Mind provides you with a little bit of self sustain available to the SNS/GS build.
- Impenetrable is similar to Indomitable Armor however it scales based on the number of enemy targets around you.
- The biggest downside of a SNS/GS tank is being CCed. Gerad's Patience allows you to gain a healthy amount of CC Resistance just by blocking passively or using your defense skills.
- Aegis Shield is simply a Stat stick passive. With Counter Barrier up you get increased value from this passive.
This Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build is the "Bodyguard Build", your job here is to make good use of Devoted Sanctuary to not only buff your party's damage but also redirect 70% of the damage your party takes back to yourself. Using this and the rest of the kit allows you to let your party fight longer and lock down the enemy.
Active Skills
Damage Skills
- Annihilating Slash has become quite a powerful skill with Skill Specializations. A 60% slow with a massive range that also does good damage is perfect in this build. Should you manage to get Queen Bellandir's Blade as well, then you have a ton of CC baked into one skill.
- Guillotine Blade is used to finish off lower health targets or capitalize on CC effects that you or your party inflict on enemies.
Utility Skills
- The main skill that makes this build come online is Devoted Sanctuary you use this in conjunction with your group's engage to keep your DPS and Healers alive longer and boost their effectiveness in combat. This is your single most important cooldown in this build.
- Immortal Pride With the All Defensive Specialization, Immortal Pride boosts your Ranged/Magic/Melee Defense significantly. Once specialized, this becomes a phenomenal personal defensive cooldown.
- DaVinci's Courage provides your team with additional Attack Speed, Max Health, and Health Regen. The Specilizations turn it into a Damage Reduction buff. Use this in conjunction with Devoted Sanctuary.
- Provoking Roar can be used to Taunt a target to peel and save a teammate's life. When a target is Taunted, they cannot use single target skills on anyone else. This is incredibly oppressive as it prevents Healers from using Swift Healing or Healing Touch on their allies.
Passive Skills
- Raging Frenzy provides you a Skill Damage Boost as long as you are within 5m or 3 or more enemies.
- SNS/GS has some cooldown issues. There are not many spammable skills, and thus Morale Boost becomes a very powerful tool, especially in the Bodyguard build. Colliding targets with Strategic Rush provides a decent amount of Cooldown Reduction to use your skills more consistently.
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
Single Target Rotation
- Precision Dash or Chain Hook
- Stunning Blow
- Death Blow
- Ascending Slash
- Guillotine Blade
- This allows you to lock 1 target down for a long period of time.
- Death Blow is buffed by Stunning Blow.
- Knocking the target down with Ascending Slash allows Guillotine Blade to hit harder.
AoE Rotation
- Devastating Smash
- Frost Cleaving
- Counter Barrier
- Piercing Attack
- Devastating Smash into Frost Cleaving allows you to lock down a clump of enemies as well as deal a lot of AoE damage.
- You use Counter Barrier on cooldown here to reset the cooldown of Piercing Attack as you are continually getting hit.
Engage Rotation
- DaVinci's Courage
- Devoted Sanctuary
- Immortal Pride
- Stalwart Bastion
- Devastating Smash
- Provoking Roar
- Annihilating Slash
- Counter Barrier
- Piercing Attack
- The name of the game here is to get your Devoted Sanctuary up before you engage. You want to get your personal defensives rolling as well as to not die from the redirected damage. Then after you charge in and get your Taunt and Slow off, you are now just using Counter Barrier to reset Piercing Attack for your main sources of damage.
Tips
- As the SNS/GS player, you dictate the tempo of your fights in most engages. Look for CC to follow up on, using Devastating Smash on top of a clump of players that just got slept on is a great way to secure kills for your guild or group.
- As a frontliner you can stay in the fight much longer than DPS and even some other Tanks. Use this to your advantage by looking to constantly harass enemy DPS players. Always look for hooks, stuns, and the ability to potentially Strategic Rush enemies off terrain or into walls.
Stat Priorities
Use the following stat priorities when playing a Sword and Shield / Greatsword build in PVP:
- Primary Stats
- Strength, Perception, and Dexterity
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 our 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 Gear
In PvP, Hit and survivability are incredibly important. So, with full green and blue gear, we want 30 Perception for the 100 extra Hit and 30 Strength for the 750 extra Max Health. Additionally, as a Greatsword user increasing your HP with Strength allows you to also increase your Hit, Skill Damage Boost, and Perception from Vital Force. After hitting those breakpoints you put the rest of the points into Dexterity for the increased damage.
End Game Gear
At Purple Gear, you start working towards hitting 60 Strength and 50 Perception breakpoints. They're essential because 50 Strength offers an extra 100 Heavy Attack Chance and 60 offers an extra 900 Max Health
Gear Progression
Acquiring Gear pieces and upgrading them is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. If you enjoy both PvE and PvP content, just use these sets for PvE as well.
If you're interested in PvE Gear Progression, check out our Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvE Build Guide here!
Early Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build
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.
There are a few things this green gear setup achieves. First, it lets you hit the 30 Strength and 30 Perception breakpoints. Secondly, once traited, you have a healthy amount of Endurance to be able to fight effectively in PvP.
- Berserk Charge Blade drops from Shade Enforcers and the Berserk Shade Wizard in Temple of Sylaveth 1F
- Deadly Single Edge Two-Handed Sword drops from Living Armor Archwizards and Living Armor Foot Soldiers in Syleus's Abuss 3F & 4F
- 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.
- Elite Tracker's Belt from the Sources of Abdominal Strength! Lithograph Book entry.
- Corrupt Witch's Hat drops from the Worker Ants in the Ant Cave open world dungeon.
Alternatives
- Elite Resistance Plate Armor can be hard to fully trait as an armor piece. If that's the case you can farm Dark Warrior's Resistance Armor much easier and it is quite a good substitute.
Midgame Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Build
At this point in the game, T1 dungeons are going to be easier to farm. Allowing you to get your purple weapons and the Box Ring.
There are a few things this green gear setup achieves. First, it lets you hit the 30 Strength and 30 Perception breakpoints. Secondly, once traited, you have a healthy amount of Endurance to be able to fight effectively in PvP.
- Karnix's Nether Sword (Death's Abyss)
- Duke Magna's Taunting Blade (Butcher's Canyon)
- Insightful Ring of Dimension (Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest).
- Elite Resistance Leather Pants Ch. 8 Story Reward.
- Guard's Endurance Necklace from the Rustic Mother Nature Necklaces Lithograph Book entry.
- Deadly Strike Iron Gloves (Specter's Abyss or Tyrant's Isle).
- Flying Dragon Claw Leather Boots (Specter's Abyss or Cursed Wasteland).
Alternatives
- Elite Resistance Plate Armor can be hard to fully trait as an armor piece. If that's the case you can farm Dark Warrior's Resistance Armor much easier and it is quite a good substitute.
No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Rune Synergies and Resonance
Unless you have this gear set somewhat traited, some of the gear from the Green/Blue set is still better for PvP. Keep that in mind before transferring over.
This gear set gives you 60 Strength 900 additional Health. The Perception gives you 100 Hit, as well as additional Buff Duration to keep skills like Counter Barrier active longer.
Gear Sources
- Adentus's Barbaric Blade(Adentus)
- Nirma's Corrupt Sword (Nirma)
- Grand General's Invincibility Gaiters (Kowazan)
- Transcendent Magic Ring (Queen Bellandir) (Substance Transformation)
- Commandant's Grandeur (Junobote)
- Grand General's Unbeaten Armor (Tyrant's Isle)
- Reaper's Footsteps (Avolos Tracker, Avolos Umbramancer in Sanctum of Desire)
- Beast King's Gilded Bracers (Cave of Destruction)
- Grim Judicator's Mask (Cursed Wasteland)
- Grim Judicator's Touch (Death's Abyss)
Alternatives
- An alternative for a Greatsword is Duke Magna's Taunting Blade you can use this until you get Adentus's Barbaric Blade as it drops from the Field Boss Adentus.
- Archboss weapons such as Tevent's Despair Blade and Queen Bellandir's Blade are easy slot ins as well. Due to the difficulty and price of getting them, however, the are not included in the suggested build.
- Transcendent Magic Ring is a ring that drops of Queen Bellandir it is most likely going to be expensive and difficult to trait. There is another means to acquire it through Subtance Transformation; however, that is a pure RNG system. Therefore, until you can get one Unshakeable Gold Ring is a great alternative.
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 Sword and Shield / Greatsword PvP Builds
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 in both PvE and PvP situations.
- Green Ranger Elowen is your go-to. Keeping targets in place for the rest of your guild or group is incredibly valuable. Additionally, when the Guardian is active you gain 500 additional Critical Hit against any target you hit that is rooted by Green Ranger Elowen.
- Another option is Vampire Slayer Ezekiel. He increases your Magic/Ranged/Melee Defense by 400 and deals damage equal to 0.6% of your Max Health to enemies within 2.5m of you. You are healed by 20% of the damage dealt. This is definitely more situational and usually is not run with SnS / GS, however it is a second Guardian you can look at if you don't need the root from Green Ranger Elowen.
Summary
- Sword and Shield / Greatsword is what most people would refer to when they think of a "Traditional Tank" in Throne and Liberty.
- Focused on being the frontliner for your guild, you dictate the tempo of your fights.
- Devastating Smash is one of your key engage skills, stunning enemy players and creating opportunities for your team to capitalize on.
- Your end game gear focuses on acquiring the General Set and Grand General Set as well as traiting Endurance.
Credits
Written by Grenton
Reviewed by Yaen