Rapier / Musket PvP Build Guide
Early Game / Beginner PvP Gearing
Season 6
A simple guide for getting yourself geared up as soon as possible for PvP! This guide shows you how to get all your equipment and supplies without having to deviate from your gameplay path or grind a bunch!
NOTE* This guide works for any weapons or armor weight! Feel free to try your own setup or follow along this one.
I also included a couple video guides for setting up your perfect beginner PvP build as well so lets begin!
Levels 1 - 30
The goal is to be PvP ready by around level 20, thankfully this is pretty easy to do!
The fist task is selecting your Archetype.
Soldier, Ranger, and Mystic are the best choices here as they will give you level 50 in Weaponsmithing, Engineering, and Arcana respectively. Depending on what weapons you want to use, you will need one or two of these skills leveled to 50! Selecting the right Archetype here can definitely save you some time, but its not a huge deal if you picked the wrong one, you just have to grind a little bit more..
We need these skills leveled to 50 in order to craft the VERY powerful level 15 and 20 named weapons from the various crafting stations. For this build I decided to go with Musket and Rapier, meaning I will need 50 Weaponsmithing and 50 Engineering.
NOTE - Check the Trading Post so see if they have any of these level 15 or 20 weapons for sale FIRST!! Other players can craft and sell these weapons so this can save you even more time!
Now that your character is all done, all you have to do is follow along the main story of the game! As you quest along you will receive a very nice amulet that’s perfect for your early game PvP build, and finally a ring with hearty and life stealing on it for your level 17 main story quest!
As you level up remember to gather as many resources as you can to help passively train up your skills! It’s not hard to get level 50 without having to do much grinding at all! You also get bonus EXP for the first time you craft each item so take advantage of it!
After getting your ring, it’s now time to join a faction of your choice by doing the initiation quest. Once you successfully join a faction all you have to do is one faction mission (non PvP works just fine!) and you will have enough tokens to buy a FULL SET of faction armor from the vendor! You can even change the attributes of this gear at the outfitting station using seals sold by the faction vendor.
If you can put gems on your armor go for it, but at this stage its not super important / cost effective unless the gems are very cheap!
Now all you need is some health potions, regeneration potions and travel rations for healing! You can cook / brew this stuff up yourself without having to level, or just buy it from the trading post!
Here’s my weapon skill trees / attributes at this point. Feel free to check out the video guide for a more in depth analysis! Otherwise, your all ready to go and enjoy PvP until level 30!
Levels 30 - 45
At levels 30 - 35 we can start to wield some very powerful 500 gear score weapons, and just like before; they are crafted! As you guessed you will now need 100 in Weaponsmithing, Engineering, and / or Arcana in order to make these.
NOTE* Make sure to check the trading post for these weapons as other players can make and sell them! This could save you LOTS of time!
This time around it will take a bit more time to level those crafting skills, I personally just bought the stuff I needed from the trading post to power level to 100 and then bought all the materials I needed for the weapons! This only cost me about 4k gold for both weapons and the levels at some honestly quite marked up prices.
You can always collect and grind this out yourself, but it will take more time than buying what you need!
You can also pick up a fantastic ring upgrade using the Materia you get as a reward from level 9 on the free seasons pass. You have a few more items here to choose from for your build as well, I also picked up the light hat!
Getting some Arcana levels (50) is great for making yourself the tier 3 potions and regens, and 50 cooking helps a bunch with your food options!
Now for your armor and earing.. at this point the armor you find from adventuring and questing is on par or even better than your faction vendor options, so you can purchase more faction gear but it’s probably not necessary. Check the trading post for good cheap armor piece as well as some early earing options once you hit level 40! I aim for Refreshing, Health or Freedom for early game!
Again, you can put some cheap gems on your gear, but try to at least put a decent gem on those nice weapons! An elemental gem or opal is perfect!
Here are my attributes and weapon skill trees at this time, you can always check out the video guide for more details!
Now your all set to go with some big upgrades to your PvP setup! I will be updating this guide for later levels very soon!!
Levels 45 - 65
Welcome to the easy part. At this stage of the game gearing becomes very simple. You will start getting 500+ gear score drops and rewards from quests / PvP reward tracks! This means you can gear up with the best equipment you can find as you continue to level up. Make sure to check the trading post to see if you can find any cheap armor, jewelry or weapons that you can wield!
Faction vendor gear is not really much better or cost efficient right now, and dropped items like the Ill Gotten Gain aren’t worth the time they take to farm since you can find items just as good while doing the main quest (jewelry below). You can hunt items if you want but its not recommended right now!
The best way to continue leveling is to do the main story quest, but feel free to take your time and do any activities you want as they all provide EXP!
You can buy all the supplies you need easily from the trading post now, make sure to stock up on Health potions, Regeneration Potions, and tier 4 meals! You will also get these as loot while you quest.
I recommend only putting the lowest tier (or cheapest!) gems on your armor / weapons for now since you will be replacing them often as you level.
We can benefit a ton on this build from the low tier elemental gems on the musket / rapier! On your armor I recommend going for a mix of physical / elemental resists for balance, or Thrust resist / Fire resist if you want to specialize against ranged damage!
Here’s a look at my attributes and weapon masteries at this point, you should be at or close to 20 in your main weapons by now! Since I am running Musket / Rapier with elemental gems 150 INT is a huge damage boost! I recommend 100 CON at this stage too, and the rest of my points go into DEX from now on.
The next and final power jump will come once we hit level 65 and put together our first end game build! Thankfully I have lots of build guides on this website =D
