Sword and Shield Dagger Leveling Guide

Introduction

Welcome to our Sword and Shield Dagger Leveling guide. In this guide, we’ll go over the process of leveling with this weapon combination and the best way to utilize it. This includes quest rewards. Sword and Shield Dagger is a high tier tank class with assassin-like aspects.

Skill Prioritization

Below is our go-to for Skill Prioritization with Sword and Shield Dagger during leveling:

A large amount of your core Skills begin the journey with you at Level 1. This includes:

Shield Strike
Counter Barrier
Chain Hook
Cleaving Moonlight
Shadow Strike
Inject Venom
Brutal Incision

You can use any filler Skill you wish, however, begin to fit & replace higher level Skills as you continue. For example, Knife Throwing at level 18 and Fatal Stigma at level 36. Passives for this build line-up pretty well and often do not need to be replaced.

Skill Specialization Priority

At Level 15, you’ll unlock Skill Specialization. This system awards you with 10 starting points to allocate and empower your existing Skills. You’ll earn 2 additional points per level up until level 31, where you then start to earn 3 additional points per level. We recommend the following set-up:

The most important ordering priority in the Skill Specializations is to make turn your Shield Strike into Piercing Attack and boost up Inject Venom and Brutal Incision as soon as you can. Finally, power up some smaller cooldown skills such as Cleaving Moonlight.

Skill Upgrade Priority

Every Skill in Throne and Liberty starts at “Uncommon Level 1“. By using Active and Passive Skill Growth Books obtained from the MSQ and Side Quests or crafting them with Marind Ores of different rarities – you can level up each Skill until Epic Level 5. Below is our recommended upgrading priority for your Skills while leveling:

Once you have upgraded these Skills to Rare and then Epic, upgrade the rest as you see fit. However, if you’re looking to prioritize PVP-mandatory Skills, such as “Counter Barrier” should be upgraded immediately.

Stat Allocation

While leveling 1-50 with the Sword and Shield Dagger leveling guide, we recommend the following stat allocation:

Strength – 20 Points
Wisdom – 20 Points
Perception – 9 Points

Weapon Mastery

Weapon Mastery in Throne and Liberty takes some time to grind up to the maximum level. For the sake of the Sword and Shield Dagger leveling guide, we’ve set our goal as Level 7 Mastery. For leveling, follow the Mastery lines below:

These are generally the best masteries to push for while leveling to help you get started.

Gearing and MSQ Rewards

Early on in leveling, crafted Uncommon gear is something you’ll only have to worry about upgrading, rather than looking for specific pieces. Around Chapter 4 of the MSQ, you’ll have enough materials and Lithographs to craft a full Uncommon set of gear. We recommend crafting gear with Melee Evasion or Mana Regen if you’re struggling. Melee Evasion gear (especially the Accessories) can be quite powerful early on in PVP too – so consider crafting them for this reason too!

If you craft the Swashbuckler’s Dagger early on, you can use it later in the Lithograph Book for a free Elite Resistance Knife!

MSQ Reward Selection

While the large majority of gear you’ll receive from the MSQ is Rare, we do not recommend moving straight over to them until you’re at least Level 50. Ultimately, this gear will be replaced with BIS Epic Tier 1 gear, but for now – we recommend the following rewards:

Chapter 1 – Gladiator’s Sword
Chapter 2 – Quality Marind Ore (only real option)
Chapter 3 – Rare Marind Ore
Chapter 4 – Any of the rings (this is the least important)
Chapter 5 – Elite Resistance Sword
Chapter 6 – Elite Resistance Visor or Elite Resistance Mask
Chapter 7 – Elite Resistance Assault Gloves or Moonlight Wind Bracer
Chapter 8 – Elite Resistance Leather Pants
Chapter 9 – Moonlight Grace Leather Boots OR Elite Resistance Plate Boots
Chapter 10 – Special Resistance Tactical Armor

How to Play The Sword and Shield Dagger Leveling Build

The Sword & Shield Dagger build is heavily focused around being a tank-like assassin while leveling. The build plays off of an incredibly high Health pool while dealing considerable amount of damage and Crowd Control. During the leveling process, you’re focused less on tanking, but more of dealing damage to progress faster.

Skill Rotation

A very simple rotation to get you started involves gathering a couple of mobs, pulling another in and cleaving them down. For example:

Chain Hook a mob in
Inject Venom (Lightning Infusion)
Shield Strike (Piercing Attack) to cleave the mobs
Provoking Roar
Cleaving Moonlight x2
Brutal Incision (Thunderclouds Bombing)
Shield Strike (Piercing Attack) again off cooldown to finish the mobs

Your defensives only need to be used if you’re in a pinch. However, Counter Barrier with the correct Skill Specializations increases your DPS output by lowering your Shield Strike (Piercing Attack) cooldown.

Later on during leveling you can add Fatal Stigma into your rotation before consuming your Thunderclouds stacks with Brutal Incision (Thunderclouds Bombing).

Leveling Tips

Finally, a few additional leveling tips to keep in mind on your 1-50 journey:

Check out our general Leveling guide for more information
Focus on the MSQ as much as you can, however, make sure to do a couple of Side Quests in each area to avoid any leveling walls.
Do not skip on crafting Uncommon gear, it’ll be important to put into your Rare gear or the Lithograph book.
As a Sword and Shield, make the most of the Shield Block to gain Damage Reduction and more on a perfect block
During the Resistance Contracts quest from the MSQ, try to pick out any Accessory or Weapon Lithograph rewards. These can help you massively in getting good early game gear.