Sword and Shield / Wand PvE Build Guide

Last Updated:December 6, 2024|Changelog

Welcome to the Sword and Shield / Wand PvE build guide. This weapon combination is primarily a tank build that focuses on living as long as possible while keeping allies safe.

This build is on the lower end of the damage spectrum when compared to other melee-focused builds like Sword and Shield/Greatsword or Greatsword/Dagger, but what it lacks in damage, it more than makes up for in durability and utility. Thanks to skills like Counter Barrier, Swift Healing, and Blessed Barrier, you're going to be the first one in the fight and the last one to leave, and your build reflects this goal through and through.

End Game Sword and Shield / Wand PVE Build

When you get access to Tevent's Cuneiform Bone this build becomes monstrously strong in all content, but as it is an Arch Boss weapon I won't equate that to the average user experience.

If you're interested in PvP, check out our Sword and Shield / Wand PvP Build Guide!

Pros

Healing
High CC
High AoE DPS
High Durability
Low Cooldowns

Cons

Gear Reliant
Low Damage
High Mana Cost

Skill Builds

Dungeons

Open World/Events

Solo Bossing

Active Skills

DPS Skills

Take Shield Survival Technique as your block of choice.
Piercing Attack is your most used single target DPS skill. Thanks to Piercing Attack it becomes a great AOE tool as well.
Shield Throw helps you keep aggro and provides extra AOE when mobbing.
You take Touch of Despair to add steady DOT Curse damage to the build. It also increases the base damage the target takes by 10% per stack.
Curse Explosion provides a bit of extra upfront damage from your Curses.
Annihilation Blade boosts the damage of your other Sword skills and provides extra AOE with Annihilation Blade.

Utility Skills

Take Provoking Roar to keep aggro on mobs and the boss. It also procs Spectrum of Agony.
Counter Barrier gives you increased Shield Block Chance and provides good synergy with the Cooldown effect for Piercing Attack.
Time for Punishment increases the damage your target takes from all sources. Take this to enhance your party's damage.

Defensive Skills

Stalwart Bastion provides Damage Reduction to the whole party, and is useful for some boss mechanics.
Blessed Barrier gives a large boost to defenses and Healing recieved, and can be used on yourself or any party member in need.
Use Invincile Wall to provide a shield to your whole party thanks to Expand Targets.
Swift Healing is to help heal anyone who is low HP.

Passive Skills

Resilient Mind is soley for Mana recovery.
Aegis Shield and Impenetrable provide extra defenses to the build.
Take Spectrum of Agony to increase the duration of your taunt and give you a bit of extra damage.
Wraith's Beckon makes it easier to maintain Touch of Despair, and increases the damage of Curse Explosion.
Devotion and Emptiness, Selfless Soul, and Noble Revival all increase your skill's healing.

Alternatives

When you are both tank and healer for your party, drop Curse Explosion and Time for Punishment for Fountain of Life and Clay's Salvation to add much-needed healing.

Active Skills

DPS Skills

Take Shield Survival Technique as your block of choice.
Piercing Attack provides consistent AOE damage and has good synergy with Counter Barrier.
Annihilation Blade amplifies the damage of your other Sword skills and provides large upfront AOE burst damage.
Annihilating Slash is a solid filler AOE DPS skill when other options are on CD.
Shield Throw provides good AOE damage and also amplifies your Heavy Attack Chance.
Touch of Despair, Corrupted Magic Circle, Ray of Disaster and Curse Explosion are all Curse-based damage abilities that provide great AOE to the build.

Utility Skills

Chain Hook and Strategic Rush are taken to help group mobs together.
Provoking Roar taunts all nearby mobs and provides great AOE damage with the help of Spectrum of Agony.

Defensive Skills

Counter Barrier provides good AOE damage through its reflect, and lowers the Cooldown of Piercing Attack.

Passive Skills

Full of Corruption and Wraith's Beckon, give a good damage boost when in combination with your Curses.
Impenetrable and Aegis Shield are your defensive tools.
Morale Boost lowers the CD of all of your skills when using things like Chain Hook and Strategic Rush.
Resilient Mind is taken for Mana sustain.
Spectrum of Agony amplifies your AOE damage in combination with Provoking Roar.
Vampiric Contract adds a little bit of extra sustain on top of the build.

Active Skills

DPS Skills

Take Chaotic Shield as your block of choice.
Shield Strike is your only spammable single target damage skill.
A Shot at Victory is one of your burst tools, use it while under the effects of Fighting Spirit Barrier and Enchanting Time.
Shield Throw gives you Heavy Attack Chance and provides a small amount of extra upfront damage.
Decaying Touch, Touch of Despair and Curse Explosion are key to most of your damage output.
Ray of Disaster helps to round out your rather large DPS downtime.

Utility Skills

Fighting Spirit Barrier and Enchanting Time are both great damage amplification tools, whenever possible, use all your burst while under their effects.
Unlucky Clock increases the damage of your Curse Explosion and is best used right after Decaying Touch.
Provoking Roar helps to provide bonus damage from Spectrum of Agony.

Defensive Skills

Counter Barrier's only purpose is to provide you a bit of extra defense from Aegis Shield and provide the small amount of Cooldown for Shield Strike.

Passive Skills

Selfless Soul is used on the rare occasion you use the heal from Chaotic Shield.
Devotion and Emptiness and Wraith's Beckon increase the damage of your Curses.
Vampiric Contract, Aegis Shield and Impenetrable all help to mitigate damage so you can spend as much time as possible DPS'ing.
Resilient Mind helps with Mana sustain.

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

PvE Bossing

AoE Combos

Solo Bossing

Engage/Opener

Provoking Roar
Shield Throw
Piercing Attack
Touch of Despair
Time for Punishment
Annihilation Blade

This allows you to quickly engage the boss, get out your taunt, and dump quick damage to help you keep aggro.

Standard DPS Rotation

Annihilation Blade
Touch of Despair
Piercing Attack
Shield Throw

You have very few DPS skills, so treat this as more of a priority of which skills to use. Keep in mind that Annihilation Blade amplifies the damage of your other Sword skills, so use it first.

Burst Rotation

Annihilation Blade
Shield Throw
Piercing Attack
Touch of Despair
Curse Explosion

This is the best way to deal as much damage as possible. Considering the low damage you deal as a Tank/Healer, your concern is more with keeping aggro and keeping allies alive.

Defensive Tools

Stalwart Bastion
Shield Survival Technique
Blessed Barrier
Invincile Wall
Counter Barrier

This isn't a rotation to be followed. These are your options when it comes to providing defenses either to yourself or to the party. Stalwart Bastion and Invincile Wall are best saved to mitigate mechanics for your whole party.

General AoE

Counter Barrier
Provoking Roar
Ray of Disaster
Touch of Despair
Annihilation Blade
Shield Throw
Annihilating Slash x2

You lack any significant single target damage, so your goal should always be to gather as many mobs as possible on top of yourself to make the most of Provoking Roar with Spectrum of Agony. If there are still mobs left over after this initial burst, finish them off with:

Touch of Despair
Corrupted Magic Circle
Curse Explosion

Make use of Chain Hook and Strategic Rush to gather mobs more efficiently and lower your Cooldowns thanks to Morale Boost.

Burst Opener

Enchanting Time
Fighting Spirit Barrier
Provoking Roar
Ray of Disaster
Touch of Despair
Shield Throw
A Shot at Victory
Shield Strike
Touch of Despair
Decaying Touch
Unlucky Clock
Curse Explosion

This rotation is designed to dump as much upfront burst damage as your kit allows. After this rotation, the rest of your fight is spent spamming Touch of Despair, Shield Strike, Shield Throw, and A Shot at Victory.

Be mindful of your Unlucky Clock CD and use it just after Decaying Touch to get the most value from Curse Explosion.

Stat Priorities

Here are the recommended stats for the Sword and Shield / Wand build.

Primary Stat
- Dexterity and Strength
Secondary Stat
- Wisdom and Perception

Consider Stat Points as a way to fine-tune your specific stats, such as Attack Speed, Crit Chance, Evasion, HP, Hit Rate, and even CC Chance. You have 49 Stat Points you can freely allocate to any four. 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 absolutely necessary.

You get bonuses for every 10 Stat Points you invest from 30 to 60. You invest your points based on acquiring these bonuses.

Take points in Wisdom for CDR, Max Damage, and Mana Regen. Perception gives you Hit Chance, Buff Duration, and both Minimum and Maximum Damage. Dexterity gives Max Damage, Evasion, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance. Lastly, Strength provides Max Health and Heavy Attack Chance. The end goal for stats is to hit the 50 Stat Point thresholds for Strength and Dexterity, with the remainder going into Wisdom and then Perception.

Mid Game Gear

Once we start slotting blue gear pieces into the build, we aim to get your Stat Points to the 30 point threshold for Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom with the remainder going into Perception.

End Game Gear

With optimized end game gear, you can hit very powerful Stat Point thresholds. The build aims for 70 Strength for the extra 100 Heavy Attack, HP and Defense. The remaining points go into Perception for the increase to Buff Duration and Hit and Wisdom for extra Mana and CDR.

Gear Progression

If you plan on PvPing in the future, just use the PvP gear shown in our Sword and Shield / Wand PvP Build Guideuide for PvE. Unless you're going for record clears, you can use the PvP gear to clear all content.

With 2-Star Dungeons being introduced, there are new BiS builds because of more accessible armor pieces and accessory pieces.
The main difference is the slightly higher Base Damage and much higher Attack Speed.
The next time these builds will be revamped entirely will be when T2 Epic gear comes out. This could possibly happen in January. No more changes will be made to this gear until T2 gear comes in January or earlier.
If you already have most of the build in the Archived section, stick with it until T2. You can use Rune Synergies with it as well.

Early Game Gear

Mid Game Gear

End Game Gear

End Game
Archboss Gear

End Game
Archived Gear

Sword and Shield / Wand Build Early Game Gear

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.

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.

When choosing offensive stats, focus on things that increase your Base Damage, Crit Hit, and Attack Speed for the most damage output. Focusing Wisdom and Dexterity early on provide the most damage and give every stat you need.

Gear Sources

Both Weapons and several gear pieces can be acquired through Lithograph Book entries.

Blade of the Resistance
- Deadly Swords
Elite Resistance Magic Scepter
- Mystical Wands
Lethal Fortune Ring
- Rustic Mother Nature Rings
Deadeye's Cloak
- Beginner Cloaks of Victory
Mask of the Resistance
- Hawk's Eye
Glade Stalker Scales
- Standard Defense Collection
Glade Stalker Boots
- Offroad Footwear

Sword and Shield / Wand Build Mid Game Gear

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.

Ruthless Enforcer Chest Plate
Resolute Crusader Sabatons

Before transferring or 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. You can use any Blue accessory you want because there is no recommended Blue piece for accessories. Just make sure it's easy to trait the item.

Karnix's Nether Sword and Lequirus's Grip are both great additions that can be put into the build as soon as you get them.

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.
If you want Evasion traits, trait Melee Evasion first and the rest afterward.
Acquire Trait Unlockstone through Recipe: Common Trait Unlockstone Bundle.

Dungeon Farming Priority

Death's Abyss
- Karnix's Nether Sword
- Wild Resistance Bracelet
  - Rustic Mother Nature Bracelets Lithograph Book entry.
Cave of Destruction
- Lequirus's Grip
- Moonlight Blessing Secret Art Armor
  - Standard Defense Outfit Collection Lithograph Book entry.
- Moonlight Grace Leather Boots
  - Power that Pushes Through Lithograph Book entry.
- Supreme Devotion
Butcher's Canyon
- Ascended Guardian Gloves
- Ecliptic Pendant
Shadowed Crypt
- Ascended Guardian Gloves
Sanctum of Desire
- Shadow Harvester Boots
Other Locations
Impure Witch's Linen Pants
- Acid Ant in Ant Nest
Insightful Ring of Dimension
- Craft Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest
- Requires 10 tokens from each Co-Op Dungeon.

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.
For non-rune builds, visit the dropdown at the bottom.

End Game Tank Sword and Shield / Wand Build

End Game DPS Sword and Shield / Wand Build

Hover over (PC) or Tap (Mobile) items in the Plannner to see sources for gear pieces.

The Sword and Shield/Wand guide's end game set is designed to provide a solid mix of damage, utility, and durability in PVE. The primary focus is on stacking Strength and Dexterity for the Heavy Attack Chance and Crit Hit, Attack Speed, and Max Damage respectively. Getting all of this gear together is going to take a long time so don't be afraid to get other pieces in the meantime to hold you over. It is worth noting that the large Strength investment is not worth it UNTIL you can get to 50 Strength for the Heavy Attack bonus. Until then, your Stat Points are better focused into Wisdom for more overall damage.

Non-Rune Builds (Click Me!)

Archboss DPS Sword and Shield / Wand Build End Game Gear

Archboss Tank Sword and Shield / Wand Build

Hover over (PC) or Tap (Mobile) items in the Plannner to see sources for gear pieces.

Both Archboss builds are largely unchanged compared to their regular counterparts. The biggest changes are the addition of the Archboss weapon Tevent's Grasp of Withering and the Archboss ring Band of Universal Power. The weapon Queen Bellandir's Languishing Blade is more suited for PVP, and as such is not included in these builds. Adding Tevent's Grasp of Withering improves the damage of SnS / Wand considerably and is worth taking on any setup.

These were the old End Game builds before 2-Star Dungeons came out. THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY BIS.

Sword and Shield / Wand Build End Game Gear

Sword and Shield / Wand Build Alternative Gear

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 the Sword and Shield / Wand build.

For PvE, use Shade Revenant Stheno as your primary Guardian of choice. It's the best guardian for dealing damage in an AoE and on single target, and for PvE that damage is all that really matters when it comes to guardians.

Summary

Sword and Shield / Wand is a self-sustain tank that focuses on staying alive as long as possible.
Remember to use Blessed Barrier for emergency defense and healing.
Don't move too far away from your healers to stay alive longer in fights.
Focus on CC'ing multiple enemies, and locking down high priority targets.
Try to focus on durability, Strength, and Dexterity for your gear, with a focus on traits that increase Health, Evasion, Damage, Buff Duration, and Skill Resistance.
Performance directly scales with gear level, and the difference between a geared tank and a non geared tank is night and day.

Congratulations on reaching the end of the Sword and Shield / Wand PvE Build Guide, continue the journey with our PvP or Leveling guides!

Credits

Written by Nymphellas
Reviewed by Yaen and Tenkiei