Ho Fencers! Been lurking on this thread for a while and have now decided to put down my bow and start practicing fencing. Need some advice tho…
Planning to go SW3 > Pelt > Cor > Fen3 but I don’t know how to set up the skill levels and what skills to prio. Need some advice and ideas on that part. Also, is it better to go SW3 off the start or go SW1 > Pelt > SW3?
Pretty excited about the class. Looking forward to your replies. Gomapseumnida!
I prefer something like this. You can change according to your preference. Note: there are skill points left
IMO, go Sw1>Pelt>Sw3. Have fun AA till 177
That was fast! Thank you for this, I hope my circle choices would be a good all rounder for PVE.
I think this build is the best for fencer. I have same build without peltesta and it’s my biggest error.
With my return exp :
SWORDSMAN
PELTESTA
Guardian maxed is very strong after we get kr buffs.
So this makes level 1-5 guardian a viable choice.
v
This holds true, heck I got mine at 5 and still holds rank 2-3 consistently at daily missions while Guardian is active whenever there are multiple Elememes and Fletchers/SRs in the team-up.
Sw3 Gung-ho15 will be a meta thing for DPS sword builds once it also gets the Guardian treatment.
I would max gung ho instead concentrate since it don’t scale in damage formula but only give a flat amount. For low str, is better maxing gung ho for scaling with epee garde.
225 already? That was quick. I barely can get my Scout from 115 to 140…
I have 75STR and 200DEX invested :
+64 with GungHo Lvl3; +310 with concentrate Lv15.
Lv15 GunHo = +100
Better scaling for +36 damage ? Buy hair with 3 stats.
Btw, I’m making some builds based on the knowledge of this topic. Feel free to check, share and use.
And correct anything wrong, of course.
Don’t mind the Miko one :3
(And yes, the highlander one is a tribute to @Palazzo, the highlander lover)
Did you realize that 36 can be turned in almost 300 damage with rank 8?
310 from concentrate in rank 8 will be almost the same.
Concentrate helps you in early level, but when fighting 50k+ hp mobs, concentrate will only take a buff slot for doing nothing.
Thank you very much for the homage, @migliole!
This is my build right now:
If I could (And maybe I’ll) change something, it would be not maxing Crossguard (I use it rarely - Lostac warned me of this - when there are Archers in my party and if the situation is convenient. It’s not that I don’t like the skill or find it lacking, but it’s that I keep forgetting about its existence due to the amount of skills that I have. Maybe if I force it a little, it can enter in my playstyle/rotations).
@gollier_nicolas
GungHo adds to PATK, while Concentrate is a Flat Additive Damage.
@everybody 
I know Sword3>Pelt1>Cors1>Fencer3 seems really good on paper, and that Pain Barrier at it’s finest is heavenly, but you guys think it can outshine Barbarians, Highlanders and even Hoplites?
Bear with me for a little, analysing only utility-wise, which is Sword3’s raison d’etre, I think that it still is outshone by:
----Barbarian
It has 2 Stuns, Helm Chopper and Seism, with the latter having a big Hitbox+AoE;
Cleave is +50 CritRate and +50% Slash and a very nice source of damage against Stunned targets;
Warcry is now futureproof and scales with the target’s level, adding to the PATK more than what GungHo can currently offer, while having no tradeoffs;
Pouncing is as strong as any of Fencer’s skills, can have the knock attribute which is nice in panic situations or in PvP - yes, it’ll not benefit from Epee Garde, but can be used in it’s downtime;
----Highlander
Although it is remembered by its offensiveness, what I really liked in it were the utilities.
Wagon Wheel, just like Bash, is used all the time with me. Yes, the animation is slow, but with the absence of Stuns, this is what we have;
Cartar Stroke is our go-to Strike skill - we’re discussing utilities, yes, but what other huge-Hitbox, good-AoE Strike skill is available in the Swordsman’s Tree? Also, you can turn-off the “Remove knockback” to have some really nice Uphill skill.
Crown reduces the enemies’ INT/SPR according to your STR (citation needed) and makes ALL the difference against bosses. I have 87 STR hitherto, and the damage reduction, although not massive (making the boss deal 1 damage), is around 50~70%;
Crossguard, as I’ve said above, is really nice and marvellous to our Fencer skills, if it fits in your playstyle. Bear in mind that, in contrast, our Evasion makes it kinda bad to trigger it;
Crosscut is futureproof, this is what I’ve learned. My PATK is 500, but I often do 1200 bleeding damage per tick (it outshines Concentrate in the pure-additive-damage category). Yes, some monsters don’t bleed, but so far, the spectrum of those who could were wider than those who couldn’t. Also, the vast majority of Bleeding-resistant monster are Plant and Machine-like, just out of curiosity. (Keel Hauling makes 100% of them Bleed, though, and can be used as counter-argument here).
Skyliner is a very nice damage skill against bleedable monster and can be useful up to Rank8, as we saw in that Doppel video where they were critting 120k+120k. I’m not going to enter in its merits, as the focus of this analysis is, again, utility - but it has the potential to survive and be of use on Epee Garde’s downtime, if you’re not spamming Composee already.
Skull Swing is good party-wise and eases your Coquille rotation. Also, don’t forget the potential downsides of using it on World Bosses and ending up benefiting the competition. My friend once pointed out that Coquille does the same, but still, Coquille is less “universal”.
So, in my honest opinion, the final verdict is that Barbarian and Highlander builds still fare better than Sword3’s.
I kinda know the points for choosing it, as they were and have been discussed here in the past and are now back again, but I’m open to being convinced.
If you see my full run on Crystal mines first phase you’d see why it is important, and later on monsters on higher level maps just ruin your day by knocking you down. Same as bosses in saalus’ case.
Since this is the trend, I can see IMC doing it all over again upto 330
As an addition to your argument, though those types can’t bleed, they are weak to Slash (Highlander specialty) and Strike (CARTAR IT), respectively.
Concerning Sw3, it will be fine to compete as long as gung ho gets the guardian treatment. Until there, @Palazzo 's case stands.
Thanks, fixed the typo. =)
Also, If GungHo ever gets buffed, I don’t think it’ll be like Guardian anymore, as Deeds of Valor already exists. I’m betting that, if it indeed ended up happening, it would scale with some Stat+Lv, similar to Concentrate, but not as meaningful, because it could become better than Warcry.
Actually, between Warcry and hypothetical Gung ho the fight is won by wich pro and con you prefer:
Higher damage with some downtime
100% uptime and less damage (and less defense)
Anyway, my main reason for not doing a Barbarian will always be that I don’t want a Schwarzenegger Fencer.
So, you want to be Christopher Lambert?
Umm… both look pretty dumb as Fencers…
Well, today is birthday. Accepting 20kk from each silute friend. 
Double Slash is an ok skill against slash weak mobs. Use it after Lunge and you’ll crit around 4.5k (each hit) with 3 charges and nice AoE. It’s not totally useless.