Introduction
Welcome to our Staff Dagger DPS Build guide for Throne and Liberty. This guide focuses on the PVP set-up for Staff Dagger and how to play it.
Skills
Below are the Skills and Specializations we recommend for the Staff Dagger DPS Build in PVP. This includes Large Scale and Small Scale:
Large Scale PVP (PVP Boss, GVG, Castle Siege)
Melee Skills and single-target focused Skills are largely ignored in this set-up. This is to ensure you have every AoE/cleave Skill available to you. Defensive Skills also play a large role in keeping you alive in huge player-count PVP scenarios.
Large Scale Specializations
With 100 total points to play with once you hit Level 50, below is our recommended Specializations for the Staff and Dagger DPS build for Large Scale PVP:
Every single cleave or AoE Specialization is selected for Large Scale PVP. The aim is to deal as much damage as possible to multiple targets.
Small Scale PVP (Arena, Dominion, Night PVP)
This set-up drops more of the AoE and cleave options to focus on single-target skirmishing and burst.
Small Scale Specializations
For Small Scale, picking more single-target CC utility and burst tools in the Specializations is highly recommended.
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 50 Perception and 50 Dexterity while participating in PVP – gear depending. Below is our recommended baseline Stat allocation:
- Dexterity – 4 Points
- Perception – 11 Points
- Strength – 27 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 Talus’s Crystalline Staff if possible. The passive from the Staff helps a lot to deal with Assassins that stun you with Greatsword. Finally, Queen Bellandir’s Hivemind Staff is the ultimate Staff to obtain. However, it is incredibly rare, as a result, do not expect to see it for quite some time.
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:
- Pale Nemesis Hartach – Hartach is as close as you can get to a Tevent’s Massacre Blade-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 Staff Dagger DPS Build
This DPS build has Top Tier Damage capabilities making it a must-have in PVP. Below, we’ll break down the basics of the PvP gameplay approaches with the build.
For PVP, this build is used to deal damage through bursting enemy backlines, melting frontlines and “nuking” clumps of enemies. You are the king of large-scale PVP in Throne and Liberty.
As a Staff Dagger DPS build, you have a couple of important roles to play. The first and foremost as expected, is to deal damage to the right targets constantly throughout a fight, launching Fire Bombs into clumps, landing Lightning skills on squishy targets while keeping a safe distance.
Meteor Nuking Rotation
Most large-scale compositions play with 1-2 “Bomb Squads” in Throne and Liberty. Your task as a Staff user is to time your Meteor cast with your other Staff players on an engage. The most important aspect here is to wait for your engagers to call their Green Ranger Guardian activation (which is an AoE Root), your Wand players to AoE sleep the enemy, or Greatsword players to AoE stun and then react to it immediately. As a Staff Dagger player, you can do the following for maximum nuke output:
- Camouflage
- Dodge Roll out of stealth (to activate your Lequirus’s Thorny Edge passive)
- Channel Meteor on the correct location
- Consume an Attack Remedy mid-channel
Following the above allows you and your other Staff players to land incredible army-wiping damage when timed well. Camouflage provides a guaranteed critical strike with your first cast out of stealth. As a result, the guaranteed critical strike paired with the Dagger damage passive and Attack Remedy – hitting 5000+ damage on multiple targets is not uncommon! You can also use the Focused Fire Bomb from Stealth as well to guarantee a nice chunk of damage.
Ice Spear Bombardment is a very strong single-target spell in PVP too. Using Ice Spear Bombardment both offensively and defensively has its benefits. You can use Ice Spear Bombardment to nuke a squishy or chunk them at the very least, additionally you can protect yourself due to the root Skill Specialization.
Utility such as High Focus should be used on the moment you and/or your team engages. This is because you gain a huge amount of free Hit and Evasion – not to mention damage! You can also prioritize freezing enemy tanks or single out MVP targets with Icebound Tomb to allow your team to focus down rooted targets (they also lose Evasion due to the Icy Mire Skill Specialization!)
Finally, you can pick off and chase to finish kills with Shadow Strike and Brutal Incision (mostly in small scale).
Small Scale
Small Scale PVP is much more skirmish-heavy. Utilizing moments to poke from range and move in and out with melee is important to winning fights. We recommend:
- Utilizing your range advantage to deal large portions of damage.
- Using Shadow Strike to chase down kills OR move into assassinate a target you just poked.
- If Ankle Strike is available, you can also engage with Shadow Strike and immediately follow up with Ankle Strike to prone a target. This allows you a free window of burst.
- Use Camouflage defensively to escape or reposition. However, if several people are fighting each other, you can use Camouflage aggressively and burst a player out of stealth with a Charged Fire Bomb.
Conclusion
That Concludes our Staff Dagger DPS Build! For more Throne and Liberty content, news and guides, be sure to check out our Throne and Liberty Home Page. Continue here to learn more about the Staff and Daggers PVE and Solo gameplay.