Yes, I’ve read that. As I said I have Pel > Hop parked, just in case I find the frustration of playing with this full Peltasta to be too difficult or tedious.
Again, I posted to hear how I can maximize the going to C2 and C3. I will not claim that it will be the best tank as other class combinations maybe able to do it better. I like the theme and concept. Heck maybe by C2 I will get fed up and pick up Rodelero after just to get more unconventional. 
By your play style… by any play style SPR has no use but to provide mdef because your not spamming skills enough to need more SP. Also having higher SP bar doesn’t do much at all consider pots all have the same CD and heal amount no matter how much SP you have so having 3k SP has literally no difference from 1.5k SP.
If you really want to tank magic mobs grab rod C2 boom magic immunity for 10s with 18s cd.
Also grabbing the next mob doesn’t contradict with doing damage at all, you should be doing damage until almost everything is dead and then move on for next wave so having zero strength basically way less effective. And having a ton of hp is once again pointless same as having way too much SP. If you only need 20k HP to easily tank a dungeon having 40k does nothing and only make your party less effective because your doing less damage for the dungeon clear than a tank with just 20k hp and tanking just as well as you.
I completely agree with this build, pretty much something I was thinking about the other night. It’s great to see it come up from a more experienced player.
The synergy between Deeds of Valor and Taunt are great, giving you a good opportunity to rotate into a 50% buffed Cyclone when mobbing.
is the high guard + umbo blow still bugged?
This comes from experience with my level 102/ C3 level 8 Peltasta, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.
I plan on going Tripple Rodelero to accompany this build.
Swordsman
With Rank 5 Concentrate I can keep up about a 75% Uptime (If you arent spamming Auto Attacks - For pure auto attacking expect a 50% uptime) , When I have to run from mob pack to mob pack I can usually boost this up to near 100% uptime - It does not reduce defense - and its Attribute is twice as powerfull as Gung Ho, + You cannot use Gung Ho together with Guardian. I have actually removed Gung Ho from my hotbar at this point.
I got Bash rank 5, I do not use it as a damage ability, as it only deals about 75ish more damage than a normal auto attack - What I do use it for is crowd controlling pesky caster mobs, Such as those bloody fire-chickens in Lvl 90 Dungeon that will melt your face off. You’ll love this ability.
Update: You can start using this ability as a “Filler” when you have put plenty of silver into its Attributes to boost up its damage aswell as hitting multiple targets.
Peltasta
I play without Rim Blow so I have no experience with this
I currently have Swash Buckling at level 5, And I want more, MORE, MOOOORE. Just so I can bunch up more monsters to smack around
As I said, I have not used Rim Blow even once during my adventure - But I do not feel the urge to get it.
SP issues - I currenly chew through my SP like mad, I have 38 Spr - 1052 Maximum SP & a total of 160 SP Recovery. (2 Headgears with SP recovery) My SP recovery does not nearly keep up when I use all of my Abilities, I find myself chugging several potions every dungeon run - Depending on the kill speed of the party.
Stat Allocation
I currently have 96 Str - 63 Con - 2 Int - 38 Spr (+8 from Necklace) - 9 Dex
I started off going full STR, Then got my SPR up to 30 - Now I am raising my Con up to my STR level. My plan is going 30 Base SPR - 2str/2con/1dex.
Please note that this entire build is just based on speculation on what I FEEL will be effective, Nothing has been researched or experimented with at higher levels.
Abilities
I would like to repeat that I am going Rodelero C3 with this build, Which gives me 2 debuffs that increase the targets [Strike] Damage taken by 100% - Thus it is heavily offensive on the Strike department
Umbo Blow
This deals approx 2.5x of its base damage to targets that have been “Staggered by a block” Which happens 100% of the time after a block, But it can be resisted by the monster.
912 Basic hit
1346 Bonus namage
With High Guard & Specialisation
1292 Basic hit
1948 Bonus damage
Swash Buckling
I am not 100% sure, But I believe the “Maximum Provocation” buff Increases the aggro that you generate on monsters when you attack them, Higher amounts of Strength might allow you to get away with less points in this ability. If you can live with pulling less monsters when using it.
I currently have this at level 5, but plan on getting it to 11.
Umbo Thrust
Deals strike damage and completely removes the targets physical defense for its duration - It deals the damage AFTER removing the armor, so it does benefit from the armor decrease.
Butterfly
Deals 3 Strong damage STRIKE hits - The ability in-game is currently classified as [Physical] - [Slash] - [Strike] But after having tried it on monsters weak to slash & strike damage it appears that it does Only Strike damage for all 3 Hits.
Langort
Deals 3 Pierce hits… It mentions something about blocking, and even has an Attribute that increases your block chance when you use it. But I have yet to manage to block anything with it, Nor does it give me a buff that increases my block chance.
Update: I used a skill reset potion to get this down to level 1 - Putting the points in Swashbuckling instead. The damage difference between Lv.1 & Lv.5 is barely noticeable.
Its damage quite potent, But not as strong as Butterfly - Quite usefull for Pierce weak mobs though.
Guardian
Level 1 for the 18% Evasion increase, Dodge comes before Block. (I often dodge attacks when holding up my Manual block).
High Guard
I got rank 3 to experiment with the +50 Physical Defense Attribute - If I find it useless I will probably take Rank 1 & put the 2 points into Swash Buckling.
This is all based on speculation and personal experience - I do not know how it will perform post level 102 at this point
Hopefully it is of some use to a fellow Peltasta C3!
This help tremendously. I’m about to hit level 15 on my first Circle already. This should help me with my skill point allocation.
Admittedly I went a different approach for my Swordsman Skills, opting to get Gung Ho instead of more points in Pain Barrier. I do understand your take on the skill and I think it could still work well in the Peltasta’s rotation.
I really do wish that there was some form of reward for getting all the way to Circle 3, given the foreseen challenge for the class.
I had Gung Ho for quite a while, It is pretty nice the first 90ish level if you keep up the Attribute. But eventually the Defense hit got to high for me - And since I usually AoE grind with Swashbuckling I started noticing that I was actually taking quite some damage when I had Gung Ho up. So I switched over to Attributed Rank 1 Guardian for the avoidance & Pdef. Especially the Avoidance is very nice, because you will have to repair a lot less.
As for Pain Barrier - There are a lot of mobs out there that have a tiny little knockback or stun attached to their attacks, When you are tanking a whole bunch of em it is an absolute nightmare to get certain abilities off. Like Butterfly & Umbo Blow. This is where Pain Barrier really shines in the PvE department - You should be fine with just 1 point though, I just had points to spare since I opted out of Gung Ho.
