Greatsword Dagger PVE Build Guide

Introduction

Welcome to our Greatsword Dagger PVE build guide. In this guide, we’ll go over our recommended way to set-up the weapon combination for PVE group activities, such as the Dimensional Circle. This set-up is used to fill a DPS spot in a 6-player dungeon group.

Skills

Below is our Skill set-up for PVE group dungeon runs:

This Skill set-up provides a little bit of cleave for trash mobs between bosses, and a large focus on single-target boss damage in 6-player dungeons.

Skill Specializations

With 100 total points to play with once you hit Level 50, below is our recommended Specializations for the Greatsword Dagger PVE build:

These particular Specializations unlock reduced cooldowns and increased single-target burst for bosses. 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 Dexterity and 50 Strength while participating in a dungeon run – gear depending. Below is our recommended baseline Stat allocation:

Dexterity – 19 Points
Perception – 10 Points
Strength – 20 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.

Early on, make use of your Rare gear you acquired through MSQ. It is totally fine and expected to be in Rare gear for quite a long time – so don’t worry too much! Gear between PVE and PVP usually doesn’t really change.

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 group play dungeons:

Shade Revenant Stheno – Stheno is the most offense-heavy choice in PVE. This Guardian dishes out consistent damage dealing projectiles to multiple targets.

How to Play The Greatsword Dagger PVE Build

Our Greatsword Dagger PVE build guide not only aims to teach you how to put it together, but also how to play it.

The main objective of playing Greatsword Dagger in a PVE dungeon is simple. You’re a melee DPS that plays exclusively in melee range dealing large portions of burst damage. However, the dagger adds some filler damage between large Greatsword cooldowns.

Skill Rotations

As previously mentioned, to utilize your build and rotation effectively, use the following opener for bosses:

Pop DaVinci’s Courage
Thunder Spirit
Inject Venom (Thunder Spirit)
Willbreaker to lower defenses
Gaia Crash (Frost Cleaving)
Stunning Blow + 2nd part of Lightning Infusion
Fatal Stigma
Death Blow
Guillotine Blade
Brutal Incision (Thunderclouds Bombing)
Cleaving Moonlight 1
Valiant Brawl
Cleaving Moonlight 2

There is plenty of times where you can do a smaller burst of damage using only the damage Skills above. However, you’ll want to keep perfect uptime of your buffs so they line up before you cycle your damage Skills. As always with Thunderclouds stacks, make sure to use Fatal Stigma BEFORE you use Brutal Incision (Thunderclouds Bombing). This is because Fatal Stigma does more damage based on the amount of stacks on a target. However, Brutal Incision (Thunderclouds Bombing) consumes the stacks to do increased damage. At 20 stacks of Thunderclouds, once Fatal Stigma is down – consume the stacks with Thunderclouds Bombing for huge burst.