Introduction

Welcome to our Greatsword Dagger DPS Build guide for Throne and Liberty. Learn everything you need to know about the premium melee-assassin experience given with this weapon combination.

Skills & Passives

Below are the Active, Passive, and Defensive Skills for the Greatsword Dagger DPS Build. For insight on which order to level these Skills up, Check our Skill Upgrade Progression Section below. It’s important to note that there is a few good options and paths you can take with the build. As a result, the freedom truly is yours to explore past our own recommendations.

Active Skills

	Ascending Slash		Shadow Strike
	Death Blow		Camouflage
	Guillotine Blade		Brutal Incision
	DaVinci’s Courage		Stunning Blow
	Precision Dash		Predatory Strike
	Valiant Brawl		Inject Venom

Passives

	Assassin’s Instinct		Robust Constitution
	Assassin’s Step		Vital Force
	Wrathful Edge		Indomitable Armor
	Shadow Walker		Cold Warrior

PvP Adjustments

For PvP only, there is an option to change the Active Skill “Inject Venom” to “Throwing Knives”. Throwing Knives not only slows down the opponent but also applies an anti-heal to the targets hit. To land this skill efficiently, use Throwing Knives in combination with Shadow Strike to guarantee a point-blank hit.

Defensive Skill

Block Blade provides not only the standard block each Defensive Skill possesses, but also the ability to dodge roll to move. Block Blade can activate various synergies in the Dagger archetype. For example, the Epic Daggers “Lequirus’s Thorny Edge” provide increased base damage after using a Dagger Mobility Skill. As a result, Block Blade acts as a free source of activate this passive, alongside other passives like Shadow Walker.

Skill Upgrade Progression

Next, Let’s look at the order to prioritize upgrading your skills. We’ve focused on the most important skills to help guide you through skill progression to help get you started. It’s important to note that you will upgrade all skills to max eventually and that some Skills start at Rare or Epic Quality. However, some Active and Passive Skill are far more vital to push.

ACTIVE SKILL UPGRADE ORDER

• Dagger- Predatory Strike (Uncommon to Rare)
• Dagger- Shadow Strike (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Stunning Blow (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Precision Dash (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Valiant Brawl (Uncommon to Rare)
• Dagger- Inject Venom (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Stunning Blow (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- Death Blow (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- Precision Dash (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Brutal Incision (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Shadow Strike (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Predatory Strike (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- DaVinci’s Courage (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- Valiant Brawl (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Inject Venom (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Block Blade (Defensive (Uncommon to Rare)
• Dagger- Block Blade (Defensive (Rare to Epic)

PASSIVE SKILL UPGRADE ORDER

• Greatsword- Robust Constitution (Uncommon to Rare)
• Dagger- Assassin’s Step (Uncommon to Rare)
• Dagger- Assassin’s Instinct (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Vital Force (Uncommon to Rare)
• Greatsword- Cold Warrior (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- Robust Constitution (Rare to Epic)
• Dagger- Shadow Walker (Rare to Epic)
• Greatsword- Vital Force (Rare to Epic)
• Assassin’s Instinct (Rare to Epic)
• Assassin’s Step (Rare to Epic)

Attributes, Weapon Mastery, and Guardians

Attributes

In this section, we will go over recommended Attribute allocation, as well as the Weapon Mastery and Guardian usage for the build.

For this build, the main attribute is actually split between Dexterity and Perception. However, Strength can play a powerful role in the build too, if you have enough stat points from gear. Dexterity is important due to the increased Maximum damage threshold, Critical Hit Chance, Evasion and Attack Speed it provides. Perception similarly plays an important role, high Perception allows you to hit targets with higher levels of Evasion, allowing for consistent assassination combos. Strength is optionally powerful in the Greatsword and Dagger set-up. Strength provides increased resistances, more Maximum Health (which synergizes with Vital Force) and powerful stat thresholds. For example, at 50 Strength, you’re granted 100 Heavy Attack Chance!

Starting out, however, we recommend the following:

NOTE: This Information does not include gear Bonuses

• STRENGTH – 10
• DEXTERITY – 30
• WISDOM – 19
• PERCEPTION – 30

Weapon Mastery

You can level up your Weapon Mastery naturally by just playing the game and using the weapon(s). The Weapon Mastery Trees for each weapon are as follows:

NOTE – Your first Weapon Mastery Point will be used to select the opening Node in each weapon.

Greatsword

• Charge – 4 points
• Incapacitate – 7 points
• Face Off – 1 point

Dagger

• Poison – 3 points
• Assassination – 9 points

Guardian – Lady Knight Kamarshea or Green Ranger Elowen

Lady Knight Kamarshea is the perfect Guardian for most DPS players, including the Greatsword Dagger DPS build. This is due to the huge shield and cooldown speed the Kamarshea provides. Kamarshea gives you the opportunity to play more aggressively without worrying about assassins counter-diving you or ranged poking you out. Alternatively, in PvE, Shade Revenant Stheno is a great choice too for raw damage output versus bosses.

Green Ranger Elowen is for the initiator enthusiasts that want to get into the thick of the fight and engage on the enemies. If timed correctly, using Shadow Strike to blink into a clump and popping Green Ranger Elowen can create huge potential to have your teammates AoE engage on the opponents. This is due to the Green Ranger rooting all targets in an AoE, increasing the chance to critically strike against them too!

Gear

NOTE – Most Elite Resistance gear ALSO has a chance to drop from Precious Blessing Pouches that can be purchased daily from your Contract Vendor and the completion of some level 50 Contracts.

Weapons

IMPORTANT – You will want to level up RARE gear to 9+ before transferring progress to EPIC quality Gear.

Level 1-50+

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Main Hand	Elite Resistance Greatsword	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical Hit	Crafted – Lithograph from Various Sources & MSQ Reward
Off-Hand	Elite Resistance Knife	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical HIt	Crafted – Lithograph from Various Sources & MSQ Reward

End Game (BIS)

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Main Hand	Morokai’s Corrupt Sword	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical Hit	Paola’s Dimension Chest (Drops in all 50+ Dungeons or can be purchased with Dimensional Crystals).
Off-Hand	Lequirus’s Thorny Edge	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical Hit	Paola’s Dimension Chest (Drops in all 50+ Dungeons or can be purchased with Dimensional Crystals)

NOTE – There is various options for the Greatsword. For example, Duke Magna’s Beserk Blade is a fantastic alternative if you cannot get the Morokai weapon to drop. The same goes for Tevent’s Despair Blade if you can get it to drop.

Armor

IMPORTANT – You will want to level up RARE gear to 9+ before transferring progress to EPIC quality Gear.

Level 1-50+

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Helm	Elite Resistance Visor	Max Health	Ranged Evasion	Melee Evasion	Crafter – Lithograph drops from Various location
Cloak	Elite Assassin’s Cloak	Max Health	Skill Damage Resistance	Bind Resistance	Obtainable from Lithograph Book, Kotori drop or Blessing Pouch
Chest	Elite Resistance Plate Armor	Max Health	Melee Evasion	Ranged Evasion	Crafted – Lithographs Drop from Ruins of Turayne Zone from Gallu Mobs
Gloves	Blessings of Mother Nature Cloth	Max Health	Melee Evasion	Magic Evasion	Crafted – Lithograph Drops from Cave of Destruction
Pants	Elite Resistance Leather Pants	Max Health	Ranged Evasion	Magic Evasion	Crafted – Lithograph drops from Mitran or Pirate King’s Chest Crab
Boots	Elite Resistance Plate Boots	Ranged Evasion	Melee Evasion	Move Speed	Crafted – Lithograph drops from Grayclaw Butcher

End Game (BIS)

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Helm	General’s Fury Headgear	Ranged Evasion	Melee Evasion	Max Health	Drops from Cave of Destruction Dungeon
Cloak	Elite Assassin’s Cloak	Bind Resistance	Skill Damage Resistance	Max Health	Obtainable from Lithograph Book, Kotori drop or Blessing Pouch
Chest	Special Resistance Tactical Armor	Max Health	Melee Evasion	Ranged Evasion	Drops from MSQ, Lithograph Book
Gloves	General’s Frenzy Gloves	Max Health	Ranged Evasion	Attack Speed	Drops from Demonhoof Berserkers & Butchers (Floor 5 & 6 Syleus’s Abyss Dungeon)
Pants	Impure Witch’s Linen Pants	Max Health	Melee Evasion	Magic Evasion	Drops from Acid Ants in the Ant Cave Abyss Dungeon
Boots	Special Resistance Judgment Boots	Max Health	Melee Evasion	Magic Evasion	Obtainable from Lithograph Book, Skeleton Lancer drop, Blessing Pouch

Accessories

IMPORTANT – You will want to level up RARE gear to 9+ before transferring progress to EPIC quality Gear.

Level 1-50+

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Necklace	Shock Trooper’s Resistance Necklace	Max Health	Skill Damage Boost	Buff Duration	Drops From Skeleton Lancer (Ruins of Turayne Zone)
Bracelet	Wild Resistance Bracelet	Max Health	Skill Damage Reduction	Stun Resistance	Dungeons – Roaring Temple and Cursed Wasteland
Ring	Lethal Fortune Ring	Max Health	Skill Damage Boost	Buff Duration	Crafted – Lithograph Recipe obtained from Lithograph Book
Ring	Crude Wind Band	Max Health	Skill Damage Boost	N/A	Uncommon Accessory Chest
Belt	Crude Vigor Belt	Bind Resistance	Skill Damage Resistance	N/A	Uncommon Accessory Chest

End Game (BIS)

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Necklace	Abyss Conqueror’s Necklace	Max Health	Skill Damage Boost	Bind Chance	Crafted from Abyss Currency x40 (Yui Jesper)
Bracelet	Beast King’s Gilded Bracers	Max Health	Skill Damage Reduction	Collision Resistance	Dungeon – Cave of Destruction
Ring	Insightful Ring of Dimension	Max Health	Skill Damage Boost	Buff Duration	Crafted with Dimensional Crystals x 20
Ring	Transcendent Magic Ring	Weaken Chance	Skill Damage Boost	Buff Duration	Crafted – Lithograph from Morokai (Raid Boss)
Belt	Battlefield Gladiator’s Belt	Max Health	Skill Damage Resistance	Stun Resistance	Drops from Wandering Soul Arbiter & Knight

Tier 2 Gearing

Tier 2 Epic gear is a step up from the Tier 1 Epics you’ll find early on in Throne and Liberty. After obtaining your Tier 1 BIS gear, you’ll need to work towards your Tier 2 gear grind. Most Tier 2 gear comes as a reward from the new Tier 2 Dungeons, along with a Tier 2 specific upgrade material – Precious Growth Schema’s. There is a lot of powerful Tier 2 gear options, with powerful 2-set or 4-set bonuses. In terms of weapons, there is also game-changing options available to most weapon types. Below is our recommended Tier 2 pieces to target farm for the Greatsword and Dagger:

Weapons

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Main Hand	Chief Executor’s Earthquake Blade	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical Hit	Tier 2 Dungeons or Crafted via Soul Shards
Off-Hand	Silent Tracker	Heavy Attack Chance	Hit	Critical HIt	Tier 2 Dungeons or Crafted via Soul Shards

Chief Executor’s Earthquake Blade allows you to assassinate individual targets while joining into massive AoE nuke fights. As a result, this weapon provides more base damage and a high level of flexibility. Silent Tracker gives you a far smoother feeling Fatal Stigma should you decide to run it. However, we still strongly believe that even with Tier 2 gear – Lequirus’s Thorny Edge is superior.

Armor

	Name	Trait 1	Trait 2	Trait 3	How to Acquire
Tier 2 Piece (Chest)	Wraith Knight’s Execution Armor	Max Health	Ranged Evasion	Melee Evasion	Tier 2 Dungeons or Crafted via Soul Shards
Tier 2 Piece (Helmet)	Wraith Knight’s Netherworld Headgear	Max Health	Ranged Evasion	Melee Evasion	Tier 2 Dungeons or Crafted via Soul Shards

Wraith Knight’s 2-set bonus provides 2000 Max Health which is fantastic for the Greatsword Dagger build. Additionally, the stats on each of these Tier 2 pieces above provides great benefit to the build through Strength, Dexterity, Evasion and Heavy Attack Chance.

How to Play the Greatsword Dagger DPS Build

The Greatsword Dagger DPS build has Top Tier Single-Target Damage capabilities and lockdown making it a must-have in both PVE and PVP. Below, we’ll break down the basics of both PvE and PvP gameplay approaches with the build. The build primarily plays in melee range.

PVE

This build is focused on dealing as much damage as possible throughout dungeons and also the open world. The build excels in single-target combat. When engaging a boss encounter, follow a rough rotation of the following skills:

• Activate Inject Venom
• Shadow Strike onto the boss
• Activate DaVinci’s Courage (for the Attack Speed boost)
• Stunning Blow (this puts “Shock” onto the boss, giving you the same benefits such as Heavy Attack Chance increase)
• Precision Dash
• Death Blow
• Predatory Strike
• Brutal Incision
• Valiant Brawl
• Guillotine Blade

With this weapon combination you’ll have several very low cooldowns you can constantly weave into the larger cooldowns, such as Predatory Strike. As a result, keeping a high uptime usage of these skills is important for gaining the most DPS.

For Survivability, you have Camouflage to drop aggro and the insane amounts of Evasion you can also gain from the Dagger passive “Shadow Walker”.

PVP

For PVP, this build is used to deal damage through nuking single-targets and locking them down. The build facilitates picking off single-targets through the use of CC’s such as Shadow Strike and Stunning Blow.

The aim of the game with this build is to most play to find flank angles. This is to reach the enemy squishy targets (namely Wand players) and effectively shut them down. Sometimes, Shadow Strike alone is enough to shut down a Wand player from healing their team due to the Silence effect.

To effectively Assassinate enemy players, follow the rotation below:

• Activate Inject Venom
• Shadow Strike
• Stunning Blow
• Predatory Strike
• Death Blow
• Ascending Slash
• Valiant Brawl
• Guillotine Blade
• Brutal Incision

There is several instances where you can use utility such as Camouflage to find your targets safely, or to escape after a successful rotation. Typically, if a target survives and begins to run away, Shadow Strike should be available again to chase. Additionally, you have Precision Dash to continue any chase required.

It is very important to remember the timing you have to land attacks during the stun window. A common mistake to make is to stun your opponent and immediately Ascending Slash them to knock them onto the ground. While this combo chain is correct, you’ll have a long time to chain the Ascending Slash to continue the Crowd Control and your combo. As a result, practice some restraint and weave in some damage skills after your stun before landing the Ascending Slash on the target.

With the Tier 2 Greatsword equipped, remember that you’re a vital piece of the AoE nuke your team can provide. Make sure to dive in and use Gaia Crash on clumps. However, only use Gaia Crash if you have the Tier 2 Greatsword.

If you use the recommended gear we have above, it’ll provide you with incredible levels of survivability while keeping your HIT very high. As a result, you’ll be able to consistently land your combo on a target even if they have high Evasion.

Conclusion

That Concludes our Greatsword Dagger DPS Build! For more Throne and Liberty content, news and guides, be sure to check out our Throne and Liberty Home Page