Assassin – Spear Rapier PVP Build

Introduction

The Spear Rapier build excels in 1V1 and 1VX PVP. This is a Flank Build with a role in Arena, OPR, and Wars.

PROs

• Elite Single Target Damage
• Elite Mobility
• Good CC

CONS

• Lacks Utility/support in group settings
• Weak against ranged opponents (Sweep Version)

Mastery Points

There are two spear setups for this build. One that uses Javelin and one that uses Sweep.

Spear Mastery Points (Sweep Version)

Active Abilities – Sweep, Skewer, Javelin

Spear Mastery Tree is set up to drag in opponents into a knocked-down state, and deal large amounts of damage before they can respond.

Sweep is an additional knock-down ability. Javelin, when used with the Artifact Weapon, Scorpion’s Sting allows you to take advantage of the “Merciless Strength” passive in the Zoner Tree, by dragging players towards you and knocking them down. Skewer is a pressure ability that also activates most of your passives. Finally, the rest of your spear mastery tree will help you deal large amounts of damage with your light attacks and abilities, as well as reduce the cooldowns of your abilities

Spear Mastery Points (Cyclone Version)

Active Abilities – Javelin, Cyclone, Skewer

The difference between the builds lies in Cyclone. Cyclone is a strong but quick burst of damage in an area around you. A key selling point of Cyclone is the Strike damage it deals, as a result of players not building resistances for Strike. Look above for the changes to the spear Mastery Points.

Rapier Mastery Points

Active Abilities – Evade, Riposte, Fleche

Your Rapier Tree is set up to provide elite mobility and defensive ability. Evade is a quick dash that restores stamina after use. You can use Evade to move towards a kill or get out of bad situations. Fleche can be used to close the gap and finish a kill and escape until your cooldowns are back up. Riposte is a defensive ability that can help you get out of bad situations with ease

Attributes

The Attribute distribution for the Spear Rapier PVP build is 50 STR, 400 DEX, 150 CON. This Attribute spread gives you access to 5% increase to light attack damage and 10% to heavy attack damage with 50 STR. This will also help scale up the damage of your spear.

Combining the 300 DEX cleanse perk with light armor gives this build elite mobility. The rest of the Dex perks increase your critical chance, critical damage, and overall damage output. The stat distribution will also greatly scale damage on the Spear and Rapier since it is the primary stat of both weapons.

150 CON will help boost your health pool since you’ll be in melee range. Also, you will also gain access to Crit Damage Resistance.

Equipment

For this build, we will be in the light equip-weight category. In this equip weight category, you’ll gain access to elite mobility and 20% more damage. For example, the best way to obtain this equip load is with the following armor setups:

1.) MED CHEST, LIGHT HEAD, PANTS, GLOVES, BOOTS

2.) LIGHT CHEST, MEDIUM PANTS, (2 LIGHT, 1 MED) HEAD, GLOVES, and BOOTS 

Armor

Artifact Armor

For this build, we recommend the following Artifact Armor pieces:

• Tumbler Shoes – Successfully dodging an attack, gives you 15% empower and 25% fortify for 5s, you are also healed for 200 + 2% of your max hp.
• Featherweight Jacket – Weightless: This armor is weightless
• Nimble Leather Coat – Highly Refreshing: Reduces max cooldowns by 10%.

All of the Armor you will want for this build will be custom-made through crafting or bought from the Auction house. The armor perks are listed in order of importance from top to bottom. Start with armor with 2 perks and work your way up to three!

• Elemental Aversion or Enchanted Ward (5)
• Enfeebling Skewer
• Leeching Cyclone (Cyclone Version only)
• Freedom (3)
• Shirking Energy
• Refreshing (4)

Weapons

Artifact Weapon

The centerpiece and must-have weapon of this build is the Artifact Weapon, Scorpion’s Sting. The main perk of Scorpion’s sting allows us to pull players into us while knocking them down, instead of pushing them away. (Sting: Javelin now does 100% weapon damage and pulls targets towards you.)

Crafted Weapons are also a must for this build. The Perks on the weapons are listed in order of importance, this time left to right.

Spear – Attunement, Keenly Empowered, Vicious or Sundering Javelin (Javelin Version).

Rapier – Sundering Riposte, Keenly Empowered, Keen

Jewelry

The perks for each piece are in order of importance from right to left so you can prioritize obtaining them. The Champions Ring and Doom’s Chance are dropped.

Amulet – Champions Amulet or Health, Shirking Empowerment, Empowered. For an artifact, we highly recommend “Ankh”.

Ring – Champions Ring from PVP reward Track

Earring – Doom’s Chance Earring from Garden of Genesis. The optimal Artifact Jewelry of choice is “Endless Thirst“.

Gems

The Meta and your resistance division will determine what gems you use in your armor. Runeglass of Punishing Malachites or Runeglass of Punishing Diamonds is the recommended gems to balance your armor as these provide the most amount of resistance possible.

In your Weapons, you’ll want to use the following gems:

• Spear – Runeglass of Punishing Opal
• Rapier – Runeglass of Punishing Opal

Heartgem Rune

For this build, you will be using the Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines . This adds even more CC to the build and applies a 20% rend to targets you root. You do receive a 50% stamina regeneration for 5 seconds after use, but this build has almost unlimited stamina at its disposal.

Consumables

Potion

Consumables on this build are pretty straight forward. You will want Infused potion on your bar (Health and Regen) and a Stack of Hearty Meals. When your Health pots are on cooldown, you should use an Infused Regeneration Potion and Hearty Meal together while kiting away to increase survivability and reduce time out of the fight.

Food and Utility

You will use food to balance out your gear to your desired Attribute Thresholds. The cheapest food available with the appropriate stats is most likely:

• Roasted Rabbit With Seasoned Vegetables
• Fall Harvest Turkey
• Rabbit Stew
• Banana Bread or Banana Pudding

Next, Tier V Honing Stones and Incense can also be used In Wars or other PVP situations. Finally, You can also use GemStone Dust to avoid spike damage in bad situations.

How to use the Spear Rapier PVP Build

The Spear Rapier PVP Build plays like a Rogue in most MMOs. The idea is to isolate targets, CC lock them, and burst them down with Cyclone and the Spears Elite Damage.

Sweep Version

With this version of the build, you will use Javelin to pull players towards you, allowing you to hit them for free and re-knockdown with Sweep. Ideally, you open with Skewer at a closer range and then pull the fleeing target back in. If your target is not dead after the initial pull-in, you can use a light attack or Skewer to finish off your opponent.

Cyclone Version

First, use Javelin to pull in your opponent from range. Ideally, you will use Javelin to start the attack with the Rend from Rending Javelin. From here, use Cyclone to hit incredibly quick burst on the target as they land on you. Finally, finish them off with your light attacks or Skewer.