February 8, 2012

Ace's Gladiator ( Hybrid )

Introduction
Hello all, recently i was asked to write a bit about Gladiators despite me being the most terribad warrior around. So, what are Gladiators you ask? Well... they are fun as heck slice and dice heroes with gorgeous superfluous animations and skills who are good at dealing consistent damage. Hopefully this guide will be of some use to you fledgling warriors though!


Skills






So why have i picked what i picked?
As a physical swordmaster you may find that the cooldown for the bulk of your abilities are very slow. More over, the damage on many of your abilities are lower in comparison to other class's abilities. In terms of skill builds, there are many other ways to build a Gladiator so feel free to experiment a little as you get several skill reset scrolls as you progress throughout the game. Here's a run though of the bulk of my abilities.


Warrior Skills
So, warrior skills. What do you get? Well the obvious ones are Dash, Tumble and Aerial Evasion. Beyond that its useful to get the extra HP boost and MP regeneration because dash will consume alot of mp.


Rising Slash
This level 6 for the extra jump! This follows nicely into Aerial Combo, but don't get into the habit of always using the Aerial Combo in PvP unless your opponent has already used their aerial evasion otherwise they can escape from your combos.


Moonlight Splitter
Moonlight Splitter is a very useful skill for PvE and PvP. This is mainly because Moonlight Splitter has a lower cooldown than practically all of the physical skills and as a result is a useful opener and bridger between your moves. It also gives you something to do when outside of melee range which will happen often in group pvp, especially in the opening stages of protection rounds.


Cyclone Slash
A gladiator lacks any much crowd control with physical skills alone so i got cyclone slash to assist my character in PvE. Its also a useful catcher in PvP, albeit difficult to land.


Triple Slash
Triple Slash is an okay skill. Most of its usefulness comes from the fact that it's instant (like a fair few physical skills) and that you can stop mid-way and dodge if need be. I've levelled it to 11 so that i can use Triple Slash EX. This provides you with another method of 'lifting' your opponent like in impact punch in order to continue your combos.


Physical Skills
The other skills such as Aerial combo and Deep Straight have been left fairly low. The reason for this is that the damage from these abilities is poor unless you pour all of your skill points into the physical tree and worse still, their cd if fairly long. Deep Straight is still useful because it has a brief i-frame, and like triple slash, can be cancelled throughout its casting. Hacking Stance is another skill you could afford to spend less skill points on as well, but i personally love to use it in PvP and lvled it for a little more damage.

Similarly, Dash Combo, Eclipse and Counter Exile are all useful skills, but their damage capability is low, so its better to spend your extra skill points elsewhere. Eclipse a great skill for when you're surrounded, but when your in a party with people casting AOE abilities, it might be better to save it rather than using it to spread out a group of bunched up enemies.

Alternatively you may consider levelling Eclipse to lvl 4. This will allow it to reduce your opponents super armor attacks by 50%. For a swordmaster this is pretty important because we lack skills like the iron skin or panic howl of a mercenary, meaning that our moves are easily interrupted. This is baaad in pvp and bad in pve because our damage output relies on our ability to combo as we lack high burst damage.


Line Driver
Line Driver rewards good positioning and is a great damage dealer on large and trapped targets. It does slightly less damage on smaller single targets as it has a tendency to shoot you right through them. Recent patches have altered the max number of hits from 6 to 4 i believe, so it doesn't quite have the power it once did.


Utility Skills
Skills such as Highlander and Hemorrahage are important skills to have. Highlander is also free... so definitely grab it. It's a good skill for keeping your teammates alive! So if you keep an eye out for drastically falling health bars when in a party, you might just save someone! Hemorrahage benefits the whole team, enhancing everyone's damage GREATLY, infact, it is the greatest debuffer in game as it works multiplicatively instead of additive like a priests or mercs damage buff so whatever you do, max it if you want to be useful in parties!

The Parry Tree is a necessary skill if you intend to go into Sea Dragon Nest parties and survive more easily. It can also be useful in dodging some of those boss attacks in regular dungeons and nests, particularly if you solo abyss dungeons. In PvP its duration is the same as the mercs iron skin if you add more SP into it, meaning you can wait out a merc rush.


Evasion Slash
I'm not quite sure what to think of this ability. As a physical sword master, alot of your abilities thrust you forwards at the enemy, but Evasion Slash does the opposite and twirls you back. It does exactly what its name suggests however as i believe it provides you with another i-frame which is crucial in pvp. I've levelled it to 2 for the extra damage but you could leave it at 1 as i feel the damage growth isn't that great.


Finishing Attack
Another nifty skill. Use it on a boss under 40% hp to get the most out of this ability.





Build




As a Gladiator you're going to get up close and personal with a lot of bosses. Its vital then you can deal damage and have the survivability to withstand the damage you fail to dodge. My build is still far from optimal but i've chosen to take the critical damage route. Why did i take the critical route? Mainly because Final Damage as a 3rd stat is incredibly hard to find on crests, making it harder to stack effectively and also because Totam Armour doesn't provide any dark %. You should also consider getting Magical Defence crests as Swordmasters typically lack in MDEF.

As mentioned previously, there are many ways to build a Gladiator though, such as stacking dark % or Final Damage. You can see here all of the Swordmaster skills affected by dark damage... which is basically all of the physical ones . For myself, the gears i've gotten are an attempt to balance good damage, consistent criticals and survivability.

There are many paths you can take depending on whether or not you intend to focus on PvP or PvE, here are some examples:


Equipment (PVE)
My critical build consists of:
Great Sword: (Destructive)
Gauntlet: (Destructive)
Head: (Dire)
Top: (Wind)
Bottom: (Dire)
Glove: (Life)
Shoe: (Life)

Equipment (PVE)
Another possible combo maybe:
Great Sword: (Windswept)
Gauntlet: (Destructive)
Head: (Dire)
Top: (Wind)
Bottom: (Dire)
Glove: (Life)
Shoe: (Life)

Equipment (PVP)
A PvP build may consist of:
Great Sword: (Paralyze)
Gauntlet: (Knight)
Head: (Life)
Top: (Mana)
Bottom: (Life)
Glove: (Life)
Shoe: (Life)


Accessories
Accessories depend on what type of damage you want to build.
For Critical: Fatal Rings and Wind Necklace and Earrings
For Damage: Destructive Rings and Dire/Wind Necklace and Earrings
For Dark Damage: Tough Necklace and Earrings, maybe brilliant rings or rings with dark % potentials.
For Final Damage: Using Set items such as Discipline Apocalypse Rings are the best way to stack final damage.


Crests
Wind Crest: For better agility/critical
Barrage Crest: For higher MDEF (this is where warriors are typically weak in)
Destructive Crest: For higher physical damage
Fatal Crest: For higher criticals
Life Crest: For additional health
Healthy Crest: For better defence
Dire Crest: For increased strength & damage


Skill Crests (PVE)
Infinity Edge: +20% damage
Finishing Attack: 20% CD reduction
Parry Stance: +20% Duration
Hacking Stance: +20% damage per second

Skill Crests (PVP)
Dash: -50% mp consumption
Side Kick: 50% faster animation
Impact Punch: 12% cd reduction (this can be swapped out)
Triple Slash: 12% cd reduction


If anything, i'd suggest reading some of the fantastic guides here on Final Damage, and Weapon and Armour Prefixes to get a good idea on the direction you may want to go with your build. Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to ask!


Video




References
http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/217/20110205/Skills_that_Affected_by_Dark_Damage-4dac375f95a693213-1.html

http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/217/20110731/Indepth_Analysis_on_Prefix_Effect_II_Armor-4e35229fdb3f0d713-1.html

http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/217/20110729/Indepth_Analysis_on_Prefix_Effect_I_Weapon-4e33241bdf61bdf13-1.html

http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/217/20110427/Final_Damage_Calculation_Mechanics-4db81690693703e13-1.html

Credits :
Ace Of Spades which is the owner of AceOfSpade(IGN) from MMOsite forum

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