Throne and Liberty is not out for global players yet, but for the very few people who have figured out how to make an account on the Korean servers (this basically involves buying from the grey market), you can try out new builds with the release of the latest update. In this guide, we will be showing you one build involving the greatsword and dagger.
Before reading on, though, just keep in mind that things can potentially change over time and this might not be as good or even viable at all when global launches in two months.
Frost Greatsword Lightning Dagger PVP and PVE Build Guide
Before we begin, this build will take advantage of the brand new skill specialization feature added in the latest update to the Korean servers. Because of this, the build will not be completely optimized as people are still figuring out the intricacies of this new system.
In a nutshell, the build will be stacking up weakens in order to drastically reduce the endurance of your opponent. In the following sections, we will try to summarize the different setups you will be using for PVP and PVE, starting with the former.
Greatsword + Lightning Dagger PVP Setup
For PVP, we actually will not be taking advantage of the new frost stuff added for the greatsword. In this setup, you will want to have Block Blade as your defense skill. For your other active skills, you will be taking the following abilities:
- Cleaving Moonlight – With both Consecutive Use and Effect Accumulation specializations active to maximize your stack buildup.
- Death Blow – Add in the damage specialization in order to deal 30% more damage to enemies that have been knocked to prone.
- Stunning Blow – Basic stun or shock ability that greatsword users typically run. Add the effect duration specialization to enhance its stun, and also include additional damage boost to buff your next ability after using it.
- Guillotine Blade – No specializations equipped for this skill, but it combos nicely with skills that render an enemy prone. It also has a weaken effect that reduces incoming healing for a significant chunk of time.
- Thunderclouds Bombing – This is basically Brutal Incision with the Thunderclouds Bombing specialization, and it is an essential part of the build, as its damage scales massively with how many stacks of weaken: thunderclouds your target has. Add the cooldown specialization too.
- Ascending Slash – This will be your main way of knocking an enemy to the prone status. Typically, you want to use this after you stun an enemy, giving you more time to pull of your combos. If you have points to spare, feel free to add in any of its specializations.
- Knife Throwing – This is mainly used as a gap closer when you’re chasing enemies, as it will let you slow them down. In addition to that, you can also use this to reduce how much healing they receive.
- Devastating Smash – This has various uses, so just gauge what you need it for in a specific situation. For example, it can be used purely for mobility, or you can also use it to stun a group of people if more crowd control is needed.
- Shadow Strike – This can be used as a quick initiator ability, though you can also take the Shadow Escape specialization for it to do some drive-by damage as it lets you pop in and out within seconds.
- Precision Dash – This is a very useful tool for mobility, especially since you can cast it two times within a short period of time. With the Bind and Range specializations, you can make this an even deadlier move to start a combo with.
- Lightning Infusion – Another essential skill for this build, this one is just Inject Venom with the Lightning Infusion specialization. This will also help you build up your weaken: thunderclouds stacks, especially when paired with the cooldown specialization.
In addition to all of these, you will also want to get a specific set of passive abilities, which will be the following choices:
- Barbarian’s Dash – This is a must have for the build as it drastically increases your movement speed whenever you use mobility skills, which you have a lot of with the setup above.
- Assassin’s Instincts – Definitely another must have for DPSing in general, as it increases your critical hit chance.
- Destructive Fang – This synergizes well with Thunderclouds, giving you even more critical hit chance as long as you keep stacking that status effect on enemies.
- Shadow Walker – This ability will increase your survivability as long as you keep using your mobility skills, which, again, you have a lot of.
- Wrathful Edge – Adds critical damage, so it’s a no-brainer for a build like this.
- Vital Force – Not too big of a boost, but you may as well take it for some extra damage and stun chance.
- Cold Warrior – Increases your damage and critical chance against stunned or shocked targets, which will almost always be in effect if you play your cards right.
- Robust Constitution – A small survivability bonus that also synergizes with Vital Force, even if just a little bit.
Equipment To Use
For your gear, you will want to be focusing on stuff that increases your melee evasion and max health. This will improve your survivability and let you further take advantage of the Vital Force passive skill.
Getting some gear that increases your dexterity and perception can also be very handy, and even throw in some bonus attack speed if you can. The Black Lion Dash boots can be a useful option in that regard, for example.
The Abyss Conqueror’s Necklace will grant you even more perception, but also a bit of strength to beef up your stats a little more. Black King’s Gilded Bracers is decent too for roughly the same reasons.
This is pretty much the same gear for the PVE version of the build, so take note of this before you continue on down below.
A Few Tips for PVPing
When it comes to using this build, you will want to activate Lightning Infusion right before you initiate a fight. After that, follow it up with a Shadow Strike and Cleaving Moonlight to dump a ton of stacks into your opponent right off the bat.
Immediately follow up your initial engagement with a stun and start dumping your abilities on them, keeping some of your gap closers ready in case they manage to slip away from you.
Alternatively, you can also start a fight using Precision Dash, though this is typically best saved for chasing enemies. Other than that, just make sure to keep Lightning Infusion active off cooldown at all times, as building up stacks is the main purpose of this build.
Frost Greatsword + Lightning Dagger PVE Setup
Now, for PVE, this build aims to make you a strong area of effect damage dealer utilizing both lightning and frost variants of skills added for the dagger and greatsword, respectively. Here are the abilities you want to use:
- Cruel Smite – This is basically Valiant Brawl with the Cruel Smite specialization equipped. With this spec, it turns the ability into an area of effect skill that relies on hits becoming a heavy attack or a crit.
- Cleaving Moonlight – Basically the same reasoning from the PVP version of this build, but with the attack speed specialization equipped as well due to the points not being needed elsewhere.
- Thunderclouds Bombing – This is going to be used the exact same way as in the PVP version of the build. Basically, it is used to finish off enemies that have low HP and have a lot of weaken stacks on them.
- Frost Cleaving – This is just Gaia Crash with the Frost Cleaving specialization equipped. It does a lot of area of effect damage, and you also want to add in the critical hit and attack speed specializations to maximize your damage output.
- DaVinci’s Chill – This ability will apply weaken: frost to a nearby target, decreasing their movement speed. More importantly, however, is that at ten stacks, the status becomes bind: icebound, which synergizes well with other frost abilities.
- Ice Tornado – This is Devastating Tornado with the Ice Tornado specialization equipped, and it is a really fast crowd clearing ability. Take the bonus damage specialization for obvious reasons as well.
- Willbreaker – Yet another straightforward area of effect damage dealing skill hat also applies weaken to affected targets, reducing their defense by a significant amount.
- Thunder Spirit – This is just the Umbral Spirit ability with the Thunder Spirit specialization equipped. When used against targets afflicted with weaken: thunderclouds stacks, it will deal bonus damage to nearby enemies.
- Devastating Smash – While not really a necessary component of the build, it is a nice tool for crowd control whenever needed. It also does a respectable amount of damage on its own.
- Frenzied Sword Dance – Just like the previous ability, it is not absolutely needed for the build, but it is a nice little mobility and damage boost that you can weave into your rotation.
- Precision Dash – This is mainly here as either an escape or initiation tool, depending on the situation. It also servers to proc the Shadow Walker passive, which we’ll get to in a bit.
- Lightning Infusion – Pretty much the same reason as the PVP version of the build. Keep it active for as much as you can, and make sure to pop it immediately before starting a fight as well.
For the PVE version of the build, we will be using very different passive abilities, though there will be some overlap with the PVP side of things. Here are the passives you will want to take:
- Vital Force – Although a little less valuable than in PVP, the skill damage boost is still a nice buff to have even if the increase itself is marginal at best.
- Victor’s Morale – This ability is here to sustain you and allow you to stay in a fight for much longer. Especially useful if you are pulling a lot of targets.
- Raging Frenzy – Since this build is centered around area of effect skills, this passive will be very beneficial as you will almost always have it active.
- Assassin’s Instincts – Again, we take this for the critical hit chance as maximizing damage is crucial to this build.
- Indomitable Armor – This will increase your survivability and will most likely cap out on stack very quickly in a fight as you’ll be pulling several mobs at a time.
- Destructive Fang – This increases your chance to crit against enemies with thunderclouds stacks. This is another reason to keep your Lightning Infusion up at all times.
- Wrathful Edge – Bonus critical damage yet again, nothing else to say about it.
- Shadow Walker – Increases your survivability immediately after using a mobility skill, which is typically going to be at the start of every encounter anyway.
A Few Tips on PVE Usage
As with the PVP version of the build, you will be using Lightning Infusion immediately at the start before you even engage your targets. Activate DaVinci’s Chill as well once you’re within range of a clump of mobs.
From there, dump your area of effect abilities on the crowd and cap it off with the Ice Tornado, which should deal a ton of damage.
Alternatively, you can start the fight with Lightning Infusion immediately followed by all your other thunder skills. Once that’s done, continue the rotation with the rest of your frost and area of effect abilities. Devastating Smash can also be used to initiate fights if you desire.
And that wraps up this build guide, which is still very much in the experimental phase and can be tweaked various ways to fit your playstyle better. While you are here, go and check out our best classes tier list for Throne & Liberty, though keep in mind that this may not be too accurate now as people make up new builds with the specialization system!
