Greatsword Staff PVP Build Guide

Introduction

Welcome to our Greatsword Staff PVP build guide for Throne and Liberty. This guide focuses on the PVP set-up for Greatsword Staff and how to play it.

Skills

Below are the Skills and Specializations we recommend for the Greatsword Staff PVP Build. This includes Large Scale and Small Scale:

ALL PVP (PVP Boss, GVG, Castle Siege, Events, Arena)

The Greatsword Staff set-up is pretty straight forward. The build is very flexible in changing a Skill here or there and tweaking Specializations to fix any situation/size of PVP. For example, taking Stunning Blow instead of Devastating Smash for single-target fights or Fireball Barrage for single-target damage.

Specializations

With 100 total points to play with once you hit Level 50, below is our recommended Specializations for the Greatsword Staff build for Large Scale PVP:

Every Specialization helps towards locking down targets and assassinating them, sometimes even clumps of players. Or, simply bring down opponents from range with your Staff Skills. For smaller scale PVP such as Arena, aim to remove more of the cleave/AoE type specializations and invest more into survivability, cooldown and other utilities.

See our Skill Specializations guide for more information.

Weapon Mastery

This guide assumes you are at least in the range of Level 13-16 Weapon Mastery. However, if you’re below this threshold, it’s not an issue. Simply spec into the mastery trees that provide the most damage first.

Stats

Stats once you reach Tier 1 Epic gear can vary frequently due to stats built into gear. As a result, try to push for at least 60 Perception and 60 Strength while participating in PVP – gear depending. Below is our recommended baseline Stat allocation:

Strength – 18 Points
Dexterity – 12 Points
Perception – 19 Points

Gear & Equipment

The gear loadout largely, if not entirely, stays the same across all content once you reach Tier 1 Epic. Our Tier 1 Epic set assumes that most of the base content has been unlocked with the Milestones completed.

We also recommend picking up Morokai’s Greatblade of Corruption if you need more Hit in Tier 1. Finally, Tevent’s Warblade of Despair is the ultimate Greatsword to obtain. However, it is incredibly rare, as a result, do not expect to see it for quite some time. Queen Bellandir’s Hivemind Staff is also fantastic, but again, an Archboss weapon – do not worry too much about obtaining it.

Guardian

Guardians are a unique transformation on a 10 minute Cooldown that gives powerful bonuses to you for 30 seconds. Some Guardians work as an additional “Active” Skill, while others provide buffs. We recommend the following Guardians for PVP:

P ale Nemesis Hartach – Hartach is as close as you can get to a Tevent’s Fangs of Fury-style effect. This Guardian requires a bit more knowledge and skill to pull off. However, if you can utilize it well, it doubles as a strong defensive and offensive Guardian.
Lady Knight Kamarshea – This Guardian is a fantastic safety net, just incase you’re taking too much damage on an engage. You’ll also get a huge amount of Cooldown Speed too.

How to Play the Greatsword Staff PVP Build

The Greatsword Staff build is the best of both worlds, playing a traditional mage style, or assassinating and diving in PvP while sporting a “bruiser” gameplay style. The build plays off of a hybrid DPS set-up of melee/magic ranged attacks with a high Health pool and strong Crowd Control.

For PVP, this build is used to deal damage through nuking single-targets and locking them down in combos – or diving stacked players and causing considerable damage. And finally, poking from range with powerful Staff Skills. You have fantastic levels of AoE, single-target and Crowd Control.

Large Scale Rotation

Below is a quick but straight forward AoE rotation for large scale PVP:

High Focus (Victorious Energy)
Serial Fire Bombs (Focused Fire Bombs – fully charged)
Precision Dash
Devastation Smash
Ascension Slash
Gaia Crash (Frost Cleaving)
Judgment Lightning

While there is plenty of other Skills that can fit into this rotation, the above is the bread and butter of a successful all-in for AoE. The main trick of this rotation is timing your Fire Bombs travel to the opponent, with your Precision Dash + Devastating Smash engage. If done properly, the Devastating Smash stuns enemies at the time the Fire Bomb reaches them. As a result, you deal large amounts of damage to players that cannot be blocked or prepared for. On top of the other AoE/cleave Skills, players quickly pop to this combo.

Another plus side to having Staff as one of your weapons is the ability to poke from range until a larger engage is needed.

Small Scale Rotations

A very straight forward single-target kill rotation is as follows:

High Focus (Victorious Energy)
Serial Fire Bombs (Focused Fire Bombs – fully charged)
Precision Dash or Icebound Tomb (to Bind)
Ascension Slash
Guillotine Blade (Charged)

The aim of this combo is simple. Much like before, this combo ensures the Fire Bomb hits the opponent at a time they’re unable to react. In this combo, it is because we prone the enemy target with Ascension Slash after binding them. Guillotine Blade when fully charged absolutely deletes enemies, cleaning up any combo and confirming a kill.

Another standard single-target rotation that utilizes the Staff more is:

High Focus (Victorious Energy)
Serial Fire Bombs (Focused Fire Bombs – fully charged)
Chain Lightning
Fireball Barrage
Precision Dash
Ascension Slash
Guillotine Blade
Judgment Lightning
Stunning Blow
Chain LIghtning
Ice Spear (Bombardment)

Similarly to the previous small scale rotation, the combo heavily relies on the Crowd Control into burst Skill situation. However, finding time to weave in more of your Staff Skills fully utilizes your damage.

Finally, it is good to remember that while you have less “escapes” as a Greatsword Staff once you’re in – you’re very sturdy for a DPS class. A true Bruiser, with a lot of HP but good resistances and damage.