When people are trying to do Fencer builds for bosses, you know you have to sleep.
That is when you jump in and help them find out about what you think that would be better instead of being sarcastic!
1 Like
DEX build doesn’t need finestra tho… and fencer is usually DEX build
-78 evasion is higher than max level leather mastery. that is not negligible… if you want finestra up, better use STR - CON build and go to dragoon route
5% x 5 = 25% evasion which stacked with guardian 18% evasion for a whooping 43% evasion during Stabbing is active.
It is negligible compared with +150 crit rate and 3 AOE ratio. Fencers usually go high Dex and stack a ton of evasion thus making -78 eva quite small.
On the other hand, Fencer skills do not have added AOE ratio modifier like its counterpart aka Doppel. Furthermore, AOE ratio items are rare and expensive.
Should I go on to crit rate?
Well for leather bosses the only class that can outrank a well built fencer is a fletcher (before rank8)
but there aren’t many of those
This actually applies to ALL skills. Not just pierce.
Well you can pretty easily reach the evasion cap with just guardian. 330 content doesn’t seem to scale up monsters evasion very well, and we still get 1 evasion per level anyway. The argument to this would be you could put less dex and more str to have higher evasion with more phys attack, but this goes against the idea behind epee stance, transcendence, and high base attack skills so
wait, I double check, +150 crit rate -78 is for finestra 15… not finestra 10 which has +100 crit rate -56 evasion rate. Fencers don’t take Hop3 for rank 6, they go Fencer 1
evasion may seem negligible but -56 evasion is (+/-) -50 DEX since Dex scales poorly.
I suppose you have a point here about AoE trade off, I don’t think negligible is correct more like a fair trade off. Less defense for more AoE
You don’t need finestra to crit when you go high DEX so +100 crit rate is the one that is more negligible…
stat wise that’s a lot of crit rate, actual usage don’t think fencers actually cared about it (unless they go high STR)
However my point stands, finestra is worth more if you go hop3-dragoon STR-CON
the initial debate was about Stabbing is only viable when Pain Barrier is active, because of it roots you in place, making you vulnerable to attacks ,knock downs and knockbacks nulify stabbing
but most people forgot stabbing attribute adds 25% evasion making stabbing viable choice for DEX build or perhaps even anyone who put some DEX in their build (cause it stacks with guardian 18% attribute)
i just curious, if you take hoplite1…then what rank will be sacrifice for stabbing only?
standar fencer is like
sw1-pelt1-barb3-fen3 = guardian, frenzy/warcry,cleave
or
sw1-h3-barb1-fen3 = skull swing,bleed,cleave,cross guard
because highlander and barbarian skill is universal, except cross guard T_T
To my preference, Pelt1 and Barb1(minimum) are mandatory to any PVE Fencer build.
Fencer1-3 gives all damage and tool skills you’ll need, which is why most would go for:
-
Pelt>Barb2>Barb3>Fen: Provides the Fencer circles more buffs and AOE skills
-
High3>Barb>Pelt>Fen: Provides more debuffs and rotatable damage skills
Getting Corsair at R5 depends to player preferences since what it offers is utility instead of buffs or damage.
Now ask yourself. What Circle are you willing to throw away from those builds just for one Pierce type skill?
do you need cleave and such at fencer c3. surely attache>fleche will work better most of the time. is there much point doing anything other than pierce?
Yes, the stance was nerfed already to not have 100% uptime, so you could use slash types on cloth monsters/WB like helga and mitris
What you gonna do then after unloading those two and they’re in cooldown?
Besides Balestra’s effective crit reduction and duration isn’t clear yet, and Cleave is a tool skill for it’s crit buff and slash debuff at late game.
bleed just effective for several type of monster.
(Hop’s skill Pierce also has a chance to supply bleed debuff)
Skull Swing will broke enemy’s arm that seems useful. But wait, Attaque Coquille is a skill that ignore enemy’s def. I doubt the synergy of both two debuff.
Frenzy is useless to fencer because you have two 0cd skill. When you have a high atribute, even auto attack with 3~4 damage each hit cant compare.
Warcry, well, may add you some atk in most situation, which i think is useful. But the atk boost may be 100~300( not boost so obviously as we think).
Except Skull Swing affects all kinds of melee attacks, while Coquille is only for pierce.
This is not the case anymore as Warcry now has scaling.
Now also Increases base damage by [The lowest level target x Targets Affected x 0.1]
If you choose Hop, almost your damage is come from pierce. Other class mostly give tool skill.
For Warcry: [The lowest level target x Targets Affected x 0.1]
330100.1=330
（in most dungeon boss, Targets Affected is 4 at most because of trap）
The reason why i dont care about fencer’s aoe ability is because of the role fencer is in pve.
When cleaning mobs in grinding and dungeon, you are an evasion tank supplying taunt. You will never have the aoe capability that comparable to wizard and archer.(and no one care your aoe ability)
WB, dungeon boss, Siaulai is the real place you can be a dps.
We aren’t even end game yet, and levels will continue to increase and this is another thing to keep in mind. Those increase in Warcry/Frenzy will give you noticeably damage boost when using Epee Stance (higher base damage = higher crit damage), as Fencers are also lacking in base damage. As we have constantly said, Fencers already have enough pierce damage, why add more? Add more buffs/aoe/slash/strike damage to your arsenal to become versatile. Fencer as a class itself is capable already of dealing enough pierce damage, that it would only require you to pick your Rank 1-5 as its support.
Another point here is you are giving up just 1, I repeat ONE skill for a Rank while you will gain more with other classes.
The devs themselves are leaning Hoplite as spear users as I have previously mentioned they have given Hoplites a new attribute which will allow them to deal damage against medium-sized enemies. It’s a waste if you are picking Hoplite and not utilizing the benefits given to that class which heavily favors spear.
If you think AOE ratio isn’t that important, then I beg to differ. It’s one of the most important Swordsman stat imo. In grinding/dungeon situations, the more monsters you can you hit = the faster you can clear mobs, the faster you can clear mobs = the better and more effective grinding team.
If you are just there to taunt, then you are a dead weight. Even a Linker/Wizard could fulfill a lurer role, a Cleric can perform a better tanking role as they have much more damage mitigation than swordsman.