Blunderbuss / Rapier PvP Build
This Blunderbuss and Rapier build has excellent mobility, with both weapons offering a ton of counters to current meta threats, like Gravity Well and Ice Shower. The build is in light armor and has a playstyle focused on dodging enemy attacks, tons of escapes, and mobility with the burst damage to bring down an opponent quickly.
This build excels at close ranged combat and does a fantastic job surviving while outnumbered. The big weakness of the Blunderbuss is a powerful ranged opponent. This build can use its speed to quickly close that gap or get to more favorable close quarters terrain to even those odds!
Check out a video guide with gameplay for this build!
This build’s damage is focused on Rapier, and the high Dexterity paired with Intelligence reflects this. The 50 points in Strength also boost the Rapier’s light attack damage by 5%, while allowing better damage for the Blunderbuss. Blunderbuss is a bit strange when it comes to scaling because it scales from Strength and Intelligence but does not benefit from a lot of the jump points for those attributes. Blunderbuss does however, benefit from the Crit Chance, Thrust Damage, and Headshot jump points from the Dexterity Tree; actually giving some benefit for investing in Dexterity! I did a TON of testing on the test server and found that this setup gave the best outgoing Rapier damage / Blunderbuss damage when going for a Rapier-focused build.
If you wanted to have Blunderbuss as your primary damage dealer, a full Intelligence build with a Tier 2 Elemental Gem is the way to go! Since this build is a close ranged, fighter having 150 Constitution in Light armor is essential for surviving unfavorable stun combos and outnumbered encounters!
Strength
50: +5% damage to melee weapon light attacks. +10% mining speed.
Dexterity
50: +5% chance to critical hit. +10% skinning speed.
100: +5% thrust damage. +20% haste for 3s after skinning.
150: Dodges cost 10 less stamina. -10% decrease in weight of skinned items.
200: +10% bonus backstab and headshot damage. +10% skinning speed.
Intelligence
50: +10% damage to light and heavy magic attacks. +10% harvest speed.
100: +10% critical hit chance. 5% chance for 1 Azoth when harvesting.
Constitution
50: All health consumables 20% stronger. +10% logging speed.
100: Increase max health by 10% of your physical armor. -10% reduction on durability loss for tools.
150: -10% to critical damage taken. -10% decrease in weight of logging items.
Equipment
Rogue is the best rapier damage perk hands down. Since the nerf to rapier cooldowns I think Refreshing Move is the best second perk, and the perfect rapier would have Keenly Empowered for the third!
The blunderbuss benefits a ton from Enchanted for raw damage. Since it shoots 6-9 pellets at a time, the extra crit chance from 50 Dexterity gives you a good shot at procing the Keenly Empowered perk for even more burst. Keen Speed would also be excellent here! The final perk of choice would be Refreshing Move but I am not sure that it’s possible to roll that perk on a Blunderbuss.
The armor perks are ideally Resilient and Refreshing. Sundering Riposte is an excellent perk to increase Rapier damage, and all of the blunderbuss skill perks for Net Shot, Blast Shot, and Hook Shot are desirable! The Shirking Energy perk would be amazing for this builds stamina sustain, but any other Shirking perk would be great here as well!
The necklace perks I have are all perfect for a light armor brawler. A Healthy and Divines necklace is great for durability and healing. Hearty on the ring is massive for additional rolls during a fight, and Thrust Damage buffs both weapons damage. Refreshing Toast on the earing to give a huge boost in healing power long term, and finally regenerating for even more healing over time. The elusive and very expensive 3rd perk of choice is Refreshing for all the jewelry, the earing however could also benefit from the Nimble perk as a 3rd.
The armor gem distribution is all up to you, I like a mix between Wilderness Ward and Spectral Ward for the even 10% damage reduction across the board.
As always, you want to try to use the best food and potions that you have available! I use a Tier 5 Dexterity / Intelligence food (Filet In Mushroom Sauce) to increase the maximum attributes of the build. You can use whatever food works best for your situation. Also a honing stone helps up your damage even more. Defiantly use Health and Regeneration potions for PvP!
Active Skills
Rapier
Riposte - 4/4 Upgrades
A fantastic counter-move that allows you to absorb an incoming attack and return with a stun. You also gain a moment of invulnerability if you successfully Riposte an attack. This is an excellent defensive skill if you get stuck in a bad snare or immobilize. After a successful counter-stun, you can roll behind your opponent and hit them with a huge backstab heavy attack!
Evade - 5/5 Upgrades
Evade is arguably the Rapier’s best skill. It not only allows you to have a brief moment of invulnerability, but makes you more mobile, can be used to attack, and can cancel any ability or action! This is a very unique effect and gives the Rapier a high skill ceiling for PvP combat. Evade is also great when chained with dodge roll, especially since you gain stamina for using it! With the high cooldown on Evade now, playing offensively and having Refreshing on your gear helps a ton!
Fleche - 4/4 Upgrades
This is not only an amazing gap-closer for attacking and getting away, but it is also a quick way for you to get behind an opponent and hit them with a strong backstab. This is also a very fast skill to cast and does quite a bit of damage on the initial hit too!
Blunderbuss
Blast Shot - 2/3 Upgrades
A large AOE knockdown that has a bit of a wind-up time. This is great for attacking and then shooting the downed opponent. It can also be used to stun oncoming attackers. I omitted the last point that gives the AOE field a speed buff because my playstyle in light armor doesn’t benefit from a stationary speed field like this, however if you are in a group, this buff could come in handy!
Net Shot - 4/4 Upgrades
A core skill to Blunderbuss gameplay, Net Shot snares your opponent, and can move you backwards quickly. This makes it an excellent counter to common meta threats like Gravity Well and Ice Shower! The snare from Net Shot is fantastic for preventing people from running away, while also applying a DOT and making them easier to hit. This skill has great offensive and defensive capabilities.
Claw Shot - 3/4 Upgrades
Claw Shot is great for closing a gap to your opponent, but can be very hard to aim if they are moving a lot due to its slightly slower projectile speed. You can also cancel the pull from Claw Shot early buy shooting the Blunderbuss. This allows Claw Shot to deliver a very fast combo with Light Attack > Claw Shot > Light Attack. This combo is the core burst damage of this build and benefits from the extra pellets of the Unload passive. I did not take the last point in Claw Shot because the damage of your last loaded shot is increased thanks to the Deep Load passive, so having only two shots loaded makes the last 9 pellet shot of the Claw Shot combo hit even harder!
