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 our 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!
- Healing
- High CC
- High AoE DPS
- High Durability
- Low Cooldowns
- Gear Reliant
- Low Damage
- High Mana Cost
Skill Builds
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
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 our build, we aim to get our 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 DPS build aims for 50 Strength for the extra 100 Heavy Attack and 50 Dexterity for the extra Crit Hit and Attack Speed. The remaining points go into 40 Perception for the increase to Buff Duration and Hit and the rest in Wisdom for extra Mana and CDR.
Gear Progression
If you're interested in PvP Gear Progression, check out our Sword and Shield / Wand PvP Build Guide here!
Sword and Shield / Wand Build Story Gear No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Fresh out of the story, you should be prioritizing mana regen and survivability over most other things when selecting gear. More often than not you keep green items to trait out for your mid-game so that you don't lose too many stats when swapping over to your blue gear.
Sword and Shield / Wand Build Mid Game Gear No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Mid-game, you are trying to slowly phase out your green gear for blues, and replacing some of the story blues with better options. Keep in mind that an item with traits is better than an untraited item in most cases. Some of these gear pieces can be a bit hard to obtain early on, so it's perfectly ok to keep your traited green gear until you can replace them. Your stat spread with this gear should be 40 Strength, 30 Dexterity, 37 Wisdom, and 18 Perception.
Sword and Shield / Wand Build End Game Gear No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Sword and Shield / Wand Build End Game Gear With Rune Synergies and Resonance
Our 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 stack 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. Your stat spread with this gear should be 50 Strength, 45 Dexterity, 35 Wisdom, and 32 Perception. 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. With full Rune Synergy, you get 50 Strength, 50 Dexterity, 35 Wisdom, and 40 Perception.
Alternatives
Sword and Shield / Wand Build Alternative Gear No Rune Synergies or Resonance
Due to the difficulty in acquiring the above gear, your gear looks more like this set for the long term. Karnix's Nether Sword, Lequirus's Grip, Black Lion Dash and Grim Judicator's Touch are fairly easy to farm from Co-Op Dungeons or Open World Dungeons. The accessories can be hard to acquire, but due to Substance Transformation they are not an unrealistic goal for most players.
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