Rapier / Fire Staff PvP Build

A very fast and mobile build that can deal massive amounts of single target and AOE damage. This build excels at the hit and run playstyle allowing it to do a great job surviving against multiple opponents while still being an offensive threat.

Both Rapier and Fire Staff got some big damage buffs this patch thanks to those new perks so this setup is doing much more damage then in previous patches, and I think this might be the strongest this build has ever felt to play!

One of the best builds for any solo PvP gameplay and my personal favorite, I hope you guys enjoy!

This is a main-hand Rapier build at heart, and the Attribute spread reflects the huge investment into Rapier damage. The 150 DEX jump point is very important for this builds Stamina sustain, especially as an up close Light Armor fighter! As always 150 CON helps immensely in PvP thanks to that Critical Damage reduction, so again as a Light Armor melee fighter you will defiantly want to get 150 CON to help you survive incoming burst damage. The 200 INT jump point gives this build all the Mana sustain it needs, but if you are lower Gear Score and cannot reach 200 you could always run Mana potions instead.

This build has pretty good Fire Staff damage even though it only has 209 INT, this is largely thanks to it being a Light Armor setup (+20% Bonus Damage), the new Fire Staff Perks being a huge source of increased damage, and diminishing returns on stacking Attributes. If you were to put all your points from DEX into INT, then this build would only gain around 17% Fire Staff Damage while loosing 22% Rapier damage (rough estimate from testing against dummy).

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.

Intelligence

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

• 100: +5% damage to light and heavy magic attacks. 5% chance for 1 Azoth when harvesting.

• 150: +15% to elemental damage. -10% decrease in weight of harvested items.

• 200: +10 mana after a dodge. +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.

Sundering Riposte is now a 24% Rend (increases targets damage taken) when on a Rapier, making it an excellent debuff to help deliver massive burst combos. The fact that this is a debuff and sticks to the target also means that you can keep the damage bonus after swapping to the Fire Staff bar as well! Rouge is BIS for this type of playstyle as this build does an excellent job getting behind an opponent. For the 3rd perk any Shirking damage is great, but I would prefer Keenly Empowered or Jagged here!

Empowering Fireball also got a big buff when on a Fire Staff, and makes this skill perfect for large AOE burst. Keen Speed also got a huge buff by giving 20% Haste for 10s! This makes it very easy to keep a really good uptime on Haste with Fire Staff’s high Critical Hit rate. The ideal 3rd perk would be Keen here.

Ideally for general armor perks you want to have Resilient and Shirking Fortification, but Refreshing, and Physical / Elemental Aversion are great secondary options.

Stable Incinerate is a must have for the GRIT that it adds, Omnidirectional Evade is also fantastic for increasing damage further. Efficient Burnout now increases the damage of your next Fire attack, making it perfect to juice up Fireball even further! As always you will want to run Shirking Energy for the Stamina sustain on the pants.

Health + Divine necklace is a huge must for PvP, I have Alacrity here but ideally I would go for Stamina Recovery as the 3rd perk! Hearty + Keen Awareness are the preferred Ring perks with burning making the Fire Staff have even more sustained pressure. Finally the earing is perfect for healing and any Refreshing is great as the 3rd perk.

This build is stacking both Thrust and Flame Resistance, as powerful ranged builds are very common, and also a more difficult fight for this build. If you want to run the standard 10% resistance against everything that works fine too, but the specialized resists help a ton in those unfavorable matchups!

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

Rapier

Fire Staff