Sword & Shield / Rapier PvP Build

A super aggressive melee build with excellent mobility. This build can quickly hunt down an opponent and deliver nasty backstab damage while also boasting a powerful defensive kit that’s excellent for brawling. This build has a super high critical rate and is packed with tons of healing power, giving it good overall durability with great burst healing power for those rough moments!

The combo of Sword & Shied with Rapier gives this build access to two gap closers and tons of stuns / staggers. I found this build did excellent in all forms of PvP, from 1v1 to 1vX and even running in the thick of the pack in a group fight! I loved how aggressive this build felt to play and really enjoyed the kill potential when hunting healers, so I hope you guys like it!!

Both Rapier and Sword & Shield scale from DEX, making it the go to stat for this weapon combo. Sword also benefits a ton from the 50 points in STR, while both weapons will get a sizable damage boost from the 10% light and heavy attack jump passive. 50 points in INT is great for rapier damage and both weapons benefit a ton from the critical damage boost as well!

Having 250 DEX gives this build access to a ton of powerful offensive jump points that synergize well with the builds easy access to stuns and backstabs. The 50 DEX critical chance boost allows this setup to reach 59% critical chance on the Sword bar! Finally the 150 DEX jump point is a huge deal for sustain while melee fighting in Light Armor.

As always having 150 CON is huge for survival in PvP, especially for a light brawler. The 200 CON passive isn’t super important as this build has a low armor value to begin with.

The resists of this setup reflect the fact that we are playing in a ranged meta right now, focusing on reducing incoming Bow, Musket and Fire Staff damage.

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 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 Sword and Shield combo has double Keen and Vicious, giving this setup a whopping 59% critical chance with amazing critical damage. Fortifying Shield Rush makes shield rush a very powerful defensive buff while on the shield, and Keen Speed tops it all off giving this build 40% Haste when you land a critical thanks to the Sword & Shield’s passives. I would recommend Empowering Leaping Strike on the sword instead of Vicious if you an get it!

A Sundering Riposte + Rogue Rapier is one of the most deadly backstab weapons in the game, the 24% Rend is no joke and allows this build to hit nearly 5k backstabs on players. Shirking abyss is a good 3rd perk, but I would prefer Keenly Jagged here for the additional pressure it provides and the stamina recovery it gives from our Rapier passives.

Ideally for general armor perks you want to have Resilient, I am also using the PvP reward track armor for that super great Shirking Heals perk that is also amplified by Sword & Shield’s healing passives. I really like Refreshing on this build as well to help alleviate the longer cooldowns of some skills. As always, Shirking Energy on the Legs is super important for Light Armor gameplay.

Omnidirectional Evade is the only other weapon perk on the gear for the damage boost it provides, you could also add Empowering Leaping Strike on your armor too if you don’t have it on the Sword.

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. Again I have the PvP track reward ring that has Invigorated Punishment as the 3rd perk and is arguably the BIS ring for this setup. The Earing of this build is a perfect healing Earing for PvP, Mana Toast being especially useful as Mana potions have a very short cooldown!

You will need food to reach the jump points that this build requires, and as always use both Health, Regeneration, and now Mana Potions too! The Sword & Shield bar actually has slightly better healing power so try to make a point of using your consumables while on the Sword bar. Both the Oakflesh Balm and Gemstone Dust are great consumables to have slotted incase you need a bunch of extra resists.

Rapier

Sword & Shield