Greatsword / Rapier PvP Build

Greatsword and Rapier together give some of the best utility for a melee build in the game. Both weapons are packed with counter moves, gap closers, and have amazing stamina sustain. Riposte + Calamity Counter alone is one of the most ridiculous skill combos for melee fighting, and this build has even more up its sleeve.

This build hits really hard, is very mobile, very hard to lock down, and always has an answer to incoming attacks. Even though I just started playing it, this feels like the best melee light armor brawler setup I have ever played.

Greatsword is not on the live server yet, so things may change before then!

Both weapons scale from DEX, but the 50 STR and 50 INT jump points are great for both weapons damage. If you want you could also run 50 STR with 300 DEX, but I think the net damage output of both weapons is optimal with the stat spread I have here.

The 150 DEX passive is huge as this build already has amazing stamina sustain, so this will push that even further. Hitting the 250 DEX passive is also really nice for setting up backstabs with Riposte.

As always having 150 CON is huge for survival in PvP, especially for a light brawler. You could go for more CON if you like as well since this build has really good damage already it wont be that big of a loss.

The resists of this setup are focused on physical resist as I am playing on the PTR and EVERYONE is using Greatsword. When Greatsword comes to the live server this would still be a good resist spread as lots of people will be using it.

Strength

• 50: +10% damage to melee weapon light & heavy attacks. +10% mining speed.

Dexterity

• 50: +10% 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.

• 250: +10% bonus critical hit damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies. +10% yield increase when skinning.

Intelligence

• 50: +10% critical hit and backstab damage. +10% harvest speed.

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.

The Greatsword should have Energizing Counter on it, as this perk is amazing for stamina sustain in PvP. Rogue is not a bad perk, but enchanted or vicious are also good here too. Ideally for the 3rd perk I would take Keenly Empowered or Keenly Jagged (If you don’t have it on your Rapier).

A Sundering Riposte + Rogue Rapier is ideal for this build with Keenly Jagged or Empowered as the 3rd perk. The rapier is going to be your backstab weapon of choice!

Ideally for general armor perks you want to have Resilient, with things like Freedom, Shirking Fortification and Shirking Heals. The leg armor MUST have Shirking Energy on it for the stamina sustain it provides. Relentless Freedom is also recommended to give the Greatsword even more defensive utility! Omnidirectional Evade is also a good armor perk to have here too.

Health + Divine necklace is a huge must for PvP with Shirking DOT cleanse being super useful against all those ranged DOTs in todays meta. Stamina Recovery would also be a great choice as the 3rd perk! Hearty + Keen Awareness are the preferred Ring perks with Leaching being the 3rd perk of choice since this build already has quite a bit of life steal. The perfect Earing would be Refreshing Toast, Regenerating, and Healthy Toast for beefy amounts of healing power.

You will need food to reach the jump points that this build requires, and as always use both Health, Regeneration, and Mana Potions too! Both the Oakflesh Balm and Gemstone Dust are great consumables to have slotted incase you need a bunch of extra resists.

Rapier

Greatsword