So… i’m not too familiar with the swordsman branch. I wanna know which build is the most defensive build, for PvE.
Now I understand tanking is not very needed in PvE, and most builds require no or little CON invested. What I meant by defensive is, builds that have skills or mechanisms that simply make them more durable than other swordsman classes (for ex. Peltasta’s blocking, cataphract’s high movement speed…etc).
P.S. Please don’t give me any “the best defense is offense” answer. I’ve tried Doppel before. It is awesome and kills quickly, but I’m looking for another build that is a bit more durable in play style. Thanks.
Anything with Murmillo… this class is OP
You can do the famous boss killer Shinomurmillo: SW3>Hop1>Rodelero3>Shinobi>Murmillo or Sw>Pelta>Hop2>Rodelero3>Shino>Murmillo or with peltasta: Sw>Pelta2>Rodelero3>Shino>Murmillo2( I think that one is less effective in damage) etc there is many variants.
But PvE is so easy… anything with decent gears can be tanky.
The most defensive Swordsman build is Sw>Pelt3>Hop3>Murm2
Reasons are that
Peltasta3 gives Def boost, HP boost, Evasion boost, active block ability
Hoplite3 gives additional block rate and ranged combat ability
Murmillio3 gives magic evasion & movement speed
For party play, Corsair C1 over Murm2 might be better, because of Iron Hook (disables up to 3 enemies) and Jolly Roger (grants a chance to all party members to negate damage)
Great! My next character will be Murmillo then. I will probably do Sword-Pelt3-Rodel3-Murm2. Personally I think the best would be Pelt-Hop2 variant, but I’m already working on a Hop-Goon so I wanna try something different.
Any other ones besides Murm?
How are Fencer and Corsair? I never really look into those 2 builds.
Fencer/matador is 2nd to best as defensive swordsman. It relies on extreme evasion boost and frame invulnerability. However it only excel in 1v1(pvp and boss). Best is still pelt3 with murmillo.
paladin3kabbalist3 -> you get a skill which tanks all damage from party members (barrier), shield block attribute, kabbalist dodges magic if wearing full cloth, and you have +300% HP with Einsof and increased healing to target with einsof. I get to 400k HP and can block for the whole party, EACH heal tile heals me for 72k HP, so with cleric3 and 30 heal tiles you can guess i don’t usually die. Gears break quite fast because so much tanking.
Can go cleric1priest2 or cleric2priest1 or cleric3, as you wish.
There’s also the kriv3-kaba2 option if you want little bit more damage. [melstis] will keep [ein sof] 10 at 100% uptime (15 sec overlap too). Down side is you only have [heal] 5 O_o
@c2gaming.seetoo I did state that I’m not too familiar with swordsman builds, so yes, I’m more interested in swordie builds since I have more experiences with other branches.
I do appreciate the Kabbalist build though, and I will look more into them. I often ignore that class since I’ve heard from many people kabbalist is trash other than Ein sof. Did the class get revolutionized in rank 9 (C3 kabba)?
Well I suppose then anything with at least pelt1, hop1 for [finestra] and murm1 for helmet will work. Those are the rally note worth defensive tools you can get. [swash buckling] gets you 25% mHP, [finestra] trades you block (goes up with CON) for your eva (goes up with DEX) (ou want to increase CON’s value no matter what) and [cassis crista] lets you avoid magic which you normally can’t.
Normally I would steer you towards the metanobi since the best defense still really is the ability to obliterate any foe, but since you’ve specified against it you can trade rod3 for pelt3 + something? Pelt3 gets you [guardian] 15 for 55% inc def and [high guard] 10 for even more block?
So sw1-pelt3-hop3-murm1-nobi? That’s as much defensive options as I can fit in there without sacrificing too much damage (you still need to be able to kill).
That’s great! I already decided to make a murm build.
By the way, is shield required to even have a chance to block? I have hop3 with lv15 finestra, equipped with two handed spear, and have never seen any block.
Finestra block only works with shields. Since you dont want to take hop3 in your murm pelt3rod3 is the best option, damage is compensated bt the OP cassis crista attributes which cost alot. I took pelt3rod3 because I’m trying to avoid duplicate paths and fit in whole swordsman and archer class in one lodge which is probably your reason as well.
Yes, you need a shield to block. Finestra lv 15 gives a lot of block, but if your block rate is only 200 or below, you’ll barely even see any blocks from lvl 350+ mobs (they have around 150 block pen).
To get decent block rate, you can either soak up CON, get +block HG equipment, or both. I bought all pieces of my armor set with block stat ranging from 45 to 56.
HG shield can also have 3 slots, this means you can put 3 blue gems into it for an absurd amount of block. Lionhead and Emengard are also decent choices tho since they give tons of +magic def. Masinios is the best bet, since it both gives awesome magic def and can have 3 sockets. If you can find a really good HG shield, tho, it can perhaps compete with Masinios.
Without Finestra, my full STR Pelta2 Rodel3 Shinobi1 Murmillo2 is sitting at 480 block, which is more than decent at PvE. Using block chance formula, I should have around (480 - 150) ^ 0.7 = 57% final block chance against most lv 350+ mobs.
Something interesting for Rodeleros (in case your build doesn’t have Hoplite) is the fact you can also get decent Evasion from Guardian’s +150 evasion attribute and Oracle’s Forecast +100 evasion skill scrolls (bought from market). Mobs at 350+ have slightly higher accuracy than block pen (~200) so since I have 400 evasion, my final evasion chance should be around (400 - 200) ^ 0.65 = 31%
If you do have Hoplite 3 in your build, you can get your block up to absurd values (but no evasion). On my full STR Pelta2 Hop3 Dragoon3 build I have 840 block with lv 15 Finestra up which puts me at the cap of ~90% chance to block against most mobs in PvE.
If you do PvP, however, no block is ever high enough.
Murmillo’s Cassis Crista give them around 30% chance to evade magic attacks, which make them easily the tankiest build (on top of Hoplite with absurd block values).
Because of the way that max hp works it’s still not good enough, whenever you increase your max hp you’re current hp stays the same, if however your current hp is higher than your original max hp you will be lowered to your original max hp. For example as a Druid I have 100k hp, and with my full transformation I go to 270k atm, now if I reactivate my transform while at 270k hp, I refresh the duration but my hp goes down to 100k.
It’s not a very effective strategy with a Kabbalist because of this, but Druid can reach near 3 minutes of transform which is 175% hp and 40% defense and magic defense. Then ofc Druid has Sterea Trofh as well.
but krivis did. That’s why it’s an option.