Hey, I’m creating my first Swordsman and I’m going for a Fencer build but can’t decide between Highlander and Barbarian for the ranks 3 and 4.
1º Build: Swords C1 > Pelt C1 > Highlander C2 > Corsair C1 > Fencer C2
2º Build: Swords C1 > Pelt C1 > Barbarian C2 > Corsair C1 > Fencer C2
I was thinking about Swords C2 instead of Pelt C1 but the 25% HP and the 18% evasion buff looks so good to not take it.
So, what do you think will be better? Highlander or Barbarian?
Most of Highlander’s skills seems to be attack skills which might be left unused once you hit Fencer which has spammable skills.
Barb on the other hand has warcry and frenzy which can be used alongside Fencer skills. Other skills are great for CCing as well.
Could be the reason why a lot of offensive Fencer builds go the Barb C2/C3 route.
Barbarian for sure dude. I’d go for Sword > Pelta/Sword C2 > Barbarian C3 > Fencer.
@Biskee
That makes sense. The CC and the buffs that barbarian provides seems really good.
@jeffbr92
I really like the Corsair and I don’t think I will replace it with Barb C3 haha’
But the Swords 2 instead of the Peltast still being a option for me.
Thanks for the reply!
Actually that’s not true at all, Highlander and Fencer skills have great synergy.
Here’s what you’re usually going to be doing as a Highlander / Fencer:
1 - Skull Swing -> Coquille -> Sept -> Lunge -> Moulinet
2 - Crosscut -> Lunge -> Skyliner 3 times
Highlander’s skills aren’t left unused, they compliment Fencer’s skill rotation quite nicely. Lunge makes the target weak to Slah-type attacks, buffing Skyliner, Crosscut, Moulinet.
@igor_lavor
I see your point but you can’t deny that the only thing that Highlander brings to the build is damage, damage and more damage.
With Barbarian 2 you will have CC and more buffs, just like he said.
And Seism and Cleave are slash type abilities, so you will have the synergy with Lunge too.
So, can we say that for PvE Highlander would be better? And for PvP Barbarian is the choice to go?
I’d say PvE and PvP both Barb x2 works well. It will bring you some AoE with Seism, single target/small range AoE with Helm Chopper (if you decide to take it instead of Frenzy, it’s my personal preference since I only went C2), Cleave following the stuns more dmg + critical, and of course War Cry. A good PvP combo with Corsair is to simply Iron Hook (I’d recommend 4 points for duration) > Keel Haul (1 point, dmg sucks) > Helm Chopper (will usually stun, further immobilization) > Cleave.
I can’t speak on Highlander too much, but I think if (they said we may not ever) get the buffs from kToS it would be worth considering more.
Well following his logic, there’s no point in using Frenzy because you’re just going to be spamming Fencer abilities.
I’d definetely say that Highlander is better for PvE because of Skull Swing, the moment you use Skull Swing on a boss, he instantly melts. You also have Crown that reduces the magic damage from Bosses.
The bad thing of any Fencer build is the lack of good AoE skills. Barbarian has Seism and Cleave which should cover that and help you with party grinding later on. Highlander’s AoE is pretty lackluster, you’re dependant on equips to have high AoE attack ratio.
I would rather have debuffs that help my party members deal more damage than try to do something Swordsman just can’t right now which is out-damage archers/wizards. That’s why i chose Highlander.
Barbarian should be better for PvP, yeah.
Makes sense. I can’t disagree with you.
It’s just that I’ve never seen someone build Highlander / Fencer so far, and that’s coming from someone who’s fond of checking my dungeon/mission partymates’ builds.
Here’s the catch:
Highlander = Boss Melter
Barbarian = Mob Melter
Pick your poison 
Makes sense.
Also:
Barbarian = more advantages to the player. Buffs to increase player’s damage.
Highlander = more advantages to the party. De buffs to increase players damage.
Thanks for the replies!
Pretty sure I’m going with Barbarian instead of Highlander. Just one more question, do you think Peltasta is a good choice for this build or Swords 2 > Barb 2 should be better?
Pelt all the way.
Swordsman 2 is really more about Restrain, and Thrust for bleeding, both being more friendly for PvP than PvE. Restrain at C2 also has a lower stun rate than if you took 3. However I have had a C2 Swordie Fencer, the proccing isn’t as terrible as some have made it out to be in the past, to be fair, because your attacks are quick and some have 0 CD. You will have far more use though from Pelt now not only because of aggroing easier and, there fore getting parties easier, but Guardian. At level 1 you get an 18% Evasion boost, which is invaluable when you inevitably find yourself tanking - cause as a Swordie it is just expected. xD
I’m a Highlander-Fencer myself. My build is Swordsman1-Highlander3-Peltasta1-Fencer1, currently.
I really like the sinergy between Highlander and Fencer. So you know, Ataque Coquille does the exact same thing Skull Swing does, but in an inferior way. Coquille makes pierce type attacks ignore the target’s defense for X duration, while Skull Swing drops the target’s defense to 0 altogether, but this applies to any kind of physical damage (Slash, Strike, Pierce & Projectile).
If your foe’s defense is 0 then there’s not really anything to ignore, is it?
That being said, Skull Swing’s downtime is higher than it’s duration, and lv 1 Coquille is nice if you want to keep ignoring your target’s defense with your physical attacks, but I’d skip it.
Here’s some mistakes I made while building my character, so try not to make them as well:
• I picked Pain Barrier at lv 1. Pick it at lv 5. You won’t regret it.
• I only have lv 4 cartar stroke. Put it somewhere between lv 7 and 10, at least. You’ll lack sufficient Strike Damage later, and this will fill your need just nicely.
• Vertical Slash is terrible. For god’s sake, someone remove it from my skill tree.
• Two-handed block can be better than you think, so long as you are not planning on have a high DEX build. You’ll regret it if you spend time trying to block to trigger the pierce debuff and your char keeps dodging hits. You’ll lose more DPS than you’ll get.
• The Ataque Coquille vs Skull Swing thing. Personally, I’d skip it (if I hadn’t already wasted a point on it). You’d think it’s damage is high and with it’s low CD it would help filling your Strike damage demand, but it’s only that good on paper. Since most of your skills are multi-hitting skills, you’ll soon learn that single-hitting skills are just plain bad.
One last note. As a Fencer, you’ll need to think ways to spend your SP efficiently. If you’re commited to heavy DPSing, even with pots your mana will drop REALLY quickly, so you’ll need to spend it only on skills that are worth it, SP/dmg-wise. So far, Crosscut+Sky liner and Moulinet are still worth it, and Cartar Stroke is too, but only if my target is vulnerable to Strike dmg. Sometimes it’s better not to cast anything and wait for the lunge debuff to cast Slash attacks since it’ll make most of your SP. Dievbirdys are your best friends, and they’ll allow you to spam as you wish 
Hope I helped your a little bit!
Hey I’m going to tell you RIGHT now that going only one circle into corsair is extremely bad. You should ALWAYS at least get corsair c2 if you want to maximize your damage output. You will regret this.
I don’t agree with the Cartar Stroke part, it takes way too longe to charge it, i would do more damage just by auto-attacking or using flaconnade instead. I’m more than satisfied with Catar Stroke lvl 3.
Something i noticed with while playing on my Fencer is that Ataque Coquille increases the “multi-hit” damages from my auto-attacks while skull swing does not, i will provide a video evidence for this. I don’t really know why this happens.
Nice video!
Tested on my fencer right now with elemental damage bonus from sacrament and my weapons and got interesting results:
Elemental damage:
Sacrament buff = 43 holy damage
Cafrisun set
Lv 203 Fencer.
First weapon
Cata rapier: (so, only 43 holy damage)
Before / After AQ.
Second line: 88 -> 295
Third Line: 55 -> 264
Second weapon:
Venier: (43+286 holy damage)
Before / After AQ.
Extra Line 1: 373 > 579
Extra line 2: 341 > 550
Tested on a Goblin Warrior (lv 192 def: 209, mdef 229.
As you see, it seems that Attaque Coquille aren’t really piercing the monster’s defense, it just adds the monster defense as damage when you attack it using piercing skills/autos. So, in a practical sense and analyzing how the defense system works (flat reduction?), we are ignoring the monsters defense this way. ie: 300 atk -206 def + 206 damage = 300 damage.
I don’t know why they programed the skill this way (maybe to avoid conflict with others sources), but extra attack lines made it noticeable because, as we know, additional damage affects then. The extra damage matches with the monsters defense (~209) on both case, with low elemental damage and with a higher elemental damage.
Maybe I’m wrong or the +damage based on def only happens to the extra lines case, so I’ll ask you a favor: Test this on a stronger monster with both debuffs (SS, AQ and SS+AQ). I wanna see how the main autoatk damage and skill damage (lunge) will behave.
Edit: Nevermind, assuming Skull swing will reduce the monster’s to 0, coquille will add 0 damage to you if I’m correct, anyway, I still wanna see it if possible, specially because of the second/third lane’s case.
Edit: Nevermind, assuming Skull swing will reduce the monster’s to 0, coquille will add 0 damage to you if I’m correct, anyway, I still wanna see it if possible, specially because of the second/third lane’s case.
Yup, the main auto-attack damage stays the same if the monster is already affected by Skull Swing and you use Coquille aftwerwards. Like you said, if the monster’s defense is 0 then Coquille will add 0 damage to it.
First, if you pass up Pelt 1, in the current state of the game , reroll. It sucks, and I hate it, but you need Pelt 1 for Taunt.
Now, for fencers, the 18% buff is REALLY nice on Guardian. I highly recommend it.
I prefer Sword 1 -> Pelt 1 -> Barb 2 -> Corsair 1 -> Fencer 2.
Also, PERSONALLY, I am not a fan of Frenzy. You don’t get the attribute, and only get lvl 5. That, and Fencers are about spamming skills ( having 2 0CD skills), and I would rather put those points into H. Chopper, but that is just me.
I recommend
Pain Barrier 1 ( I prefer 5 but some people like 1 )
H Chopper 10
Seism 5
Cleave 10
Warcry 5
Taunt 5
Guardian 1
Hook 1
Jolly Rogger 5
Knee 4
Dusk Devil 5
Those are pretty much the core skills you get
That’s is exactly the build that I’m going for, just the skills are a little different.
You can check it here: