Wow! Just saw that wall of text of replies. Really appreciate you taking your time and effort into answering our questions.
Thank you for your reply to my question. I did notice that some of the healers I invited to the dungeon were a bit new to the instance. That and my ping to the server was around the 200s. I’ll keep trying to improve my gameplay as well as note the kind of players I invite to parties.
Thank you again for taking your time at informing us! Appreciate it, mate!
nice argument.
but dont you think being a corsair, you actually need to be corsair 2 to be very effective? i mean: you actually cant be cata 3 corsair, a char with mobility and lock. that sounds great but in practice cant be. imo: swordmans pvp builds are too limited: corsair
not even cata3 …
Clearly you haven’t seen the current swordsman in the top 50 pvp chart.
I wish the topic you mentioned featured some screenshots because from my iCBT2 experience this was not the case at all.
Edit: I’m going to quickly clarify what has been mentioned: the attribute mentions that it will stack it, but quite possibly only if you lower the defense of the monster.
So if the monster HAS NO DEFENSE or DEFENSE LOWER than 30, it doesn’t add it as 60 per monster.
I was thinking about use it: http://www.tosbase.com/database/items/243102/
So without squire c2, what do you think about sword>hop2>corsair2>shinobi or sword>hop3>dop2 ?
Not necessarily.
The best Corsair tool for PvP is Iron Hook, and that is covered with Circle 1 alone. While Circle 2 adds some nice damage with Hexen Dropper, that isn’t the main concern when it comes to PvP.
I do think it is possible to go Cataphract C3->Corsair for a PvP-centric build. Dragoon does add more skills and damage to the build, but in the end they are not mandatory for PvP.
After all, a good PvP player uses all the tools in the kit to try to outsmart the opponent. With tools like Iron Hook, Impale, Rush, etc; I do think it is very likely to make an impact on PvP and if you manage to CC-lock someone with Impale+Iron Hook then that person will have no means to escape and will most likely die, even if you don’t have the Dragoon skills.
But it is all gameplay. There are too many factors to consider on PvP, and it all comes down to skill and playing style.
I did the test myself during the last days of iCBT2 for over two hours in game to confirm that they are accurate. This how War Cry works.
I also made sure to test it on many mobs and not only low level ones. So I did test it on mobs that had over 200 defense.
Unfortunately I didn’t bother to record it because it takes too long to wait for the cool-down and gather mobs to keep testing it. And didn’t even think of taking screenshots either, which could have been useful for situations like this, so that is my mistake.
But if you do record it we will have a good documented testing of it and it will help to clear doubts around it, and it won’t have to be just my word for it.
I will also try to test it again, but I don’t think Barbarian will be my first character, so it is gonna take a while before that.
I think there are many ways you could go with your build, and all of them are perfectly fine. You could go Corsair 2, Hoplite C3, Doppelsoeldner, Shinobi or Dragoon.
It really depends on what exactly you want your build to do and the skills that are appealing to you (or the classes / costumes you like more).
To be honest, those two builds are very close in terms of overall effectiveness, so there is no clear winner. It is all on your personal preference.
I think someone mentioned that Skyliner now has 3 overheat stacks and hits 2 times, so it’s not a very hard nerf.
Cartar stroke is good for the same reason as punji strike, because it can cause a devastating wave of 50% patk hits. Also it has 50% bonus damage hidden modifier (according to damage formula thread) so it will be useful even in late game.
The problem with Synchro Thrusting for my Fencer build is that it won’t work with Rapier, I was planning to use shield and dagger for swapping anyway. In late game 150% damage would’ve been nice filler skill for combo. But for some reason it works with sword but not rapier, according to ToSbase. And I was surprised because it’s the only skill in the game not working with rapier but working with sword.
And regarding Shield Push, that’s exactly what I mean, when we have Highlander’s Skull Swing, any other armor decreasing debuffs are useless.
Jolly Roger: someone tested it and said that difference between level 1 and level 5 is obvious, so I assume that it will also grow significatly up to level 15. Though if it’s like 2% per level, then level 10 is enough, and it’s better to get fenser/shinobi/doppel or dragoon at R7, but if it’s different, then Corsair 3 might be a good choice, or really bad.
So yeah, it needs some testing.
As for attaque Coquille, it’s bettet to have 100% uptime then not to have.
The damage difference may be insignificant but it exists. Even 1 auto w/o armor ignoring is damage loss, while we don’t have a better skills to invest anyway. That’s why I suggested lvl 3 as safe choice. It’s kind of overprotective but why not? 2 points elsewhere won’t make any difference as well. I usually go 5 1 3 1 5 in my Fencer builds.
And finally, regarding pelt rod damage, even small amount of damage is good gor a party, so if someone goes full tank it can deal like 20k damage with this combo to several mobs, if he has enough AoE attack and decent weapon.
Especially it works great with cryomancer in party, since Rode skill deals bonus damage to frozen as well.
I’ve seen a lot of Fencer builds floating around, I can’t help but want to ask the person who seems like they have the most experience.
I want a build that would work out in the game’s PvE, I think. Highest damage possible, since I know it’s a class that will already have a lot of evasion.
I’m totally new to the game, I understand the class system and such, but I’m not sure what would be the best things to pick for each rank and circle.
@Cathexis Thank you very much for this comprehensive and updated Swordsman guide. Just in time for Early Access!
The topic you linked from way back December seems to be missing all of those points. Don’t worry though, I will be the one testing it out with extensive screenshots to back it up as I level along with no weapons equipped on monsters of my level.
From Cathexis’s guide and a few other searches, this is the one I can come up with, will probably go with this build myself next week.
Thanks a bunch, this looks more solid than some of the older ones I’d dug up. Although I have to wonder, isn’t Fencer better off without a shield?
Fencer has so many good skills, it’s hard to allocate points for it imo.
I feel like Attaque Coquille at level 3 means it debuffs for the same amount of time as its cool down, so I could combo ACoquille->Sept->Lunge->Seism(Slash Skill), then ACoquille-> Acomposee spam while the first combo is on cool down.
As for the shield, you just whip it out to use Swash buckling then put it away basically lol. Weapon swap is fast.
If you don’t particularly care for Swash, you can replace it with another Swordsman level.
Oh okay, sounds good then. I’ll go for that playstyle, sounds like it helps out a party format pretty nicely.
So I guess a general question, how long does it take to reach rank 7? Would I be playing for a long time before I would have my build completed?
I’d say swap 13 into cleave from helm chopper. If you land cleave into mobs that are stunned ( by helm chopper, funnily enough ) you deal +200% damage. You also have a bonus to slash from lunge. Cleave is a slash type, helm chopper is strike. Those two bonuses even without a critical will do nice damage together.
Yes, you could do that. I had a hard time deciding how to allocate 15 points between Cleave and Helm Chopper myself.
However, in the end, I wanted at least 1 relatively strong STRIKE skill (besides Coquille). And Helm Chopper on its own has great damage and hits twice. I think it comes down to preference.
There are many ways that you could go with this. The standard Fencer build is the one that @Godhand posted, which my take on it would be: [Swordsman->Peltasta->Barbarian C3->Fencer C2] (http://www.tosbase.com/tools/skill-simulator/build/3xonb1w60g/)
However, it depends on what we consider a “Fencer”. Is a Fencer simply using the costume? Or is that with the requirement of Fencer C2?
Because if it is about PvE and “dealing the most damage possible” while being a Fencer (having at least Circle 1 of it), then I think you would find this build interesting:
Swordsman->Highlander C2->Peltasta->Corsair C2->Fencer
I think that would be the highest damage as possible in PvE while having one circle of Fencer. Highlander could be replaced by Barbarian too, depending on personal preference, something like:
Swordsman->Peltasta->Barbarian C2->Corsair C2->Fencer
The idea is combining the burst damage of Hexen Dropper with the burst damage of Sept Etoiles and buff them up with Attaque Coquille and Cross Guard (gotta weapon-swap for it and it might be tedious). But you will also have Bleeding from Highlander.
And both, Barbarian and Highlander have skills that have good synergy with Lunge, since it boosts Slash-type skills.
While both Corsair and Fencer have attributes that help them deal more damage while using a dagger on the off-hand, so it has some interesting use in there.
In the end I think both are valid builds. The first one (Fencer C2) is oriented more towards sustained damage (longer fights), while the second one (Corsair) focuses more on burst damage (short fights).
And if you get interested in PvP, you also have access to Iron Hook and Keel Hauling. So many possibilities, you can get very creative with your build.
Uh, depends how much you play each day and if you have Premium status or not. So it is very difficult to say.
If you have Premium, I think you can do it in 3~4 weeks without spending THAT much time into the game (you would have to do your daily quests every day though). And can of course be shorter if you spend more time playing.
Without Premium, I think it might be 1.5~2 months? Not sure to be honest.
How does High2Cors2Fencer compare to Hop2Cors2Dragoon in terms of burst/sustained damage?
I lile this corsair+fencer build. Though I planned to get high3 instead of pelt for even more pure damage(both highlander and fencer benefit A LOT from Skull Swing, since their damage is low), but I think that pierce defense ignore is kind of enough, because skyliner is good vs defense.
But falconnade will have some problems getting through heavily protected enemies. So High3 is still very viable.
Dragoon has better damage I think, especiallt vs bosses. Fencer is more defensive class. But defense ignore is good.
Though for max dmg High3 is important.