This guide is solely focused on Fencer for PVP only.
I want to start off this guide with the following disclaimer:
Fencers are very expensive to build and NOT that good in PVP. On top of this it is hard to use and requires very high situational awareness and a high skillset with good ping. Skill freezes or lag spikes will mean your death most of the time.
After playing Fencer extensively in TBL, I do not recommend using this class for PVP. Maybe the situation will become better once Matador comes out. For now, with the amount of money you put into a Fencer, you can build a decent Murmillo and perform MUCH better in PVP. If you want to rank in the top 10, go build a Murmillo instead, because a Fencer is not going to get you there.
Ok, if you’re still reading this, you probably enjoy torture or Fencer memes so much that you want to continue.
The reasons why Fencers aren’t good in PVP right now is as follows: (copy and pasted from the other thread)
1.Wearing dagger in offhand instead of shield and leather instead of plate - Due to the Epee buff negating shield defense and the Rapier Mastery - aggression attribute, the majority of Fencers don’t use shield in their offhand and put crit gems in both their main and offhand weapons in order to crit and do decent damage. This decreases their block a lot compared to classes that can wear shield. Leather armor is also needed to boost crit rate but leather has crap physical ad magical defense, even when upgraded. Plus it’s usually plate armor that gives CON stat, not leather. You can block with Preparation and Flanconnade but this roots the Fencer in place if you use it, making you vulnerable to other cc in TBL.
2.Lack of block pen - even with high crit, against geared Murmillos/clerics/geared shield users, I get blocked half the time. This is even after putting decent amounts of points into DEX, gemming Solmiki gloves with yellow and using 3X Ellaganos cards. Because of point 1 making you squishy, you can’t go full DEX, you need decent amount of CON to survive in TBL.
3.The need for melee range - Fencer’s hitbox is small and the range is horrible. You literally need to be in melee range for the majority of skills to hit. Getting into melee range is the tough part in TBL with things like raise, MF, ice wall, frost pillar etc. Even if you have iron hook, many geared cannoners with scout 1 can literally 1-shot you from stealth before you can hook them (due to point 1 above). With necros/sorcerers that are surrounded by skeletons and bats, it’s literally impossible to hook the player from range too (hook affects 3 targets max) and Fencers don’t have enough AOE to burst down the surrounding skeletons.
Point 1 is the worst, followed by point 3 then point 2.
So how do you play Fencers in PVP then? Play it like a paper assassin.
Your build is going to look like this:
Swordsman 3 ----> XXX ------> Corsair 1 ------> Fencer 3
XXX can be either Pelt, Barb or Rodelero.
Pelt brings Swash Buckle (+25% max HP), Barb brings cleave debuff + Helm Chopper, Rodelero gives Montano.
Your main killer skill is Attaque au Fer. It hits hard, fast and has no animation, meaning you can run away straight after you cast it. With enough physical attack and/or crit you can one-shot people using this skill. Your Preparation buff should ALWAYS be saved up for only this skill and ensure that your Epee Garde is up when this skill is used. .
Your other damage skills are:
- Balestra: This Will be your positioning skill after hook. You can also use this to deal damage to lesser geared enemies or to finish off low hp enemies.
- Flash: This skill hits pretty hard and has 3 charges, making it a decent damage skill but with a long cooldown. There is a slight animation lock when casting this skill so be aware.
- Sept Etoiles: For PVP this skill should be at level 15. It deals almost the same damage as Flash however it has a long animation so it locks you in place. It’s got a shorter cooldown though.
Your defensive skills:
- Flanconnade: This is a good blocking skill with 5 overheat so you can spam it when you are in danger from physical attacks. If enemies unload their hard hitting skills while you block using this skill, this will allow you to run away. However, there are some situations where you cannot stand still, so you must judge when is a good time to use this skill.
- Preparation: This can also be used to block physical attacks, although it’s mainly used to boost your next attack and the block is not as reliable. Only resort to using this to block if you think it might save your life.
Strategy in TBL:
Positioning is key to being a good Fencer. If you are out of position on the field, you will die.
Your main focus is to stay in the back lines of your team and support using hook. You also need to wait for your chance to run to melee range and use prep + au fer to burst the enemies down, starting from the weaker ones first (archers and wizards, depending on their gear). This require patience. Too often I see Fencers run in when they shouldn’t have, resulting in them getting hit by freeze / MF / raise etc. and dying as a result. Your engagement time within the enemy team should be short - unload your hard hitting skills then run out before you get cc’ed.
However, the hardest part for a fencer is when you run into solmiki-geared HP whales with 100k+ HP and high block/defense. The clerics and Murmillos that rank within the top 10 usually fall under this category and they are very hard (sometimes impossible, if they have a healer in their team) to deal with. The majority of your attacks get blocked even if you wear block pen gear and if you start doing damage to them, they can easily heal up. I haven’t come across a good solution for these type of enemy teams yet to be honest. If you have others in your team that hit harder than you, then you might want to fall back to a support role by using hook and let others kill for you.
The other type of headache you will come across is geared archers (SR, Cannonner, Hacka with trans 10 weapons). They can kill you in 1-2 hits from range before you can even get close. Against these, your only chance is to get close enough then hook and hopefully Balestra close enough to burst them down. If you miss your hook, you’re usually dead soon after.
To conclude, you can see why Fencer has been made into a meme too due to Au Fer:
