u want around 100 STR, a lot of DEX and like 50-100 CON
but as someone that know a lot about swordie builds, id say, go for another class as ur first character.
swordsman can be REALLY strong, but u need A LOT of time and silver (in-game money) for it
This is why I rolled a Fencer early on, sure we have our evasion capped we still have the mighty(hardmode=blocking magic projectiles) Flannconade for manual blocking even without a shield on.
It may be argued that level 5 pain barrier is acceptable with a high flee. Flee does not help with magical damage.
The primary skill of Cata 3, rush, is next to useless without pain barrier. Rush is a channeling skill, you get hit, it stops. Even Earth Wave sometimes gets cancelled without pain barrier.
[off-topic] lmao I just realized our profile pics are us both eating popcorn. hahaha is that youâre in-game char too?
the pop corn thing was my idea. You were just faster in making a gif and I was lazy. 
In game yeah. They should sell a blue version of the hula shirt.
Nope, youâre wrong.
SW3->Cataphract3 Can be REALLY strong.
Other swordman tree is just a meh.
Well @Lenny already pointed out Da Build that covers Dragoon bread and butter. A variation of that is to change Dopp with Sair for one of Swordman treeâs best gap closer: Hook>Stride.
This is a wwaaayyy safer bet for a first character in this hellhole of a game.
dude i trashed my high level swordie and made a full supp PD, just cus its easier and donât need so much time and money
But it wont be sexy.
as fellow masochist a little advice
donât worry about your build
know your enemy type (find leather mob, coz youâre spear user)
learn your class weakness (donât go mobbing magic mob)
then go solo all the way, till you hit the hard part, equipment part
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I definitely want to go cataphract though, because I want to ride a mount into battle 
so thatâs not going to change. I guess going peltasta at rank 2 might have been better. And I see why pain barrier is so important. Maybe if this event lets me reset skills I can put more point into it.
And I wasnât trying to craft the perfect build, just one that will be usable throughout the game (in pve). I already knew that cataphract (or even swordsman in general) wasnât the best build to choose going into this.
Something you might want to consider if you do not care about PVP at all is this:
Sword 2 > Hop 1 > Cata 2 > Hop 2 > Dragoon 2
It makes Dragoon Burst a lot stronger, especially against Bosses. But you lose Rush and the 100% uptime Trot. This way you focus on your pierce damage skills of Dragoon and with Spear Lung -> Serpentine -> Dethrone you have some huge damage to burst down mobs. And even 300+ grind should be easy as you can do Lunge -> Dragontooth and Serpentine -> Dragontooth on linked mobs in rotation to delete every mob group.
I think you should re roll dude. Please take peltasta.
Level 100 can be reached a in just a day.
Just go SW Peltasta Hoplite Cataphract3 Dragoon.
After queue dungeon 50 3x, you should be 65, after that, take quest that give you expcard level 4 and youâre gonna go rocketing 90, and wait the other day and voila, youâre 100
cata sucks for pve, he should go hoplite 3 dragoon c2, a fencer c3 or a doppel if he wants to solo pve
i love my cataphract but the class does not fit for pve purposes, no reason to get it for pve over hoplite dragoon.
The original poster has clearly implied that he doesnât care about pvp, then why give him a pvp class?
Read what he wants âThanks for all the advice everyone. I definitely want to go cataphract thoughâ. Let him build what he wants.
My Cata funded all the chars of my GF and my account. A total of 8+ chars. All have high attributes and high end gears. My cata soloed all the quests upto Maven without any problems at all.
I solo quested on my Catagoon (S3C3D1) to lvl 270 into Abby. It was the fastest character I ever quested through and it was really nice and easy and the most fun I ever had questing through all maps. Cata does excellent in pve.
In the end itâs all about play style.
Some classes are easier than others (And less buggy⌠cough cough) but even with people saying how bad Pyro3 is, I can still get 1~3 DPS rank even when mismatched. Itâs just harder because I have to keep track of my fireballs and where others sent them while keeping all my ground DOTs up at the same time while managing SP to cast Hell Breath in a safe location during Fire Ball down time.
But yeah Iâd say OP should experiment with this build and see if it fits his play style. Instead of picking a meta build that everyone uses but he might not have fun with. Also with Pelta he already has Grinding party spots guaranteed at 200+.
Im having a much easier time in PvE with cata compared to hop.
For all the Cata naysayers, just keep in mind that while your damage wonât be the best, your kiting game will be really strong and at least restrain will give you the occasional stun. Iâd recommend going that hop2 - cata 2 route so you get a balance of damage and mobility.
First decide your focus. For a two-handed spear mounted build i would go:
For pvp, go sw3>cata3>dragoon
Sw for restrain, cata for trot and rush, thats your best combo, dragoon for more damage
For pve, probably sw>pelta>hop>cata3>dragoon
Sw for pain barrier and bash lv3(optional, but u dont wanna it above lv 3), pelta for swash buckling and guard lv1(you wanna it at lv1 for the 18% evasion without hurting your damage too much), hop for finestra, cata for rush and trot, dragoon for more damage.
But honestly, if wanna damage go for archer, you can have one of the best single target damage of the game at rank 5 with qs3>rogue