Best Longbow / Dagger (PvP)

Weaken opponents with ranged attacks before finishing them off in melee with the Longbow / Dagger build in Throne and Liberty (TL). Learn how to use the Longbow and Dagger build, including the best gears to equip, skill rotations, traits, and more.

Longbow / Dagger Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Build Summary
Longbow / Dagger	Focus: Damage, Crowd Control, PvP Stat Priority: Dexterity, Perception
Skill Setup
Pros	Cons
Excellent Burst Damage Can Specialize in Short or Long Range Has Escape Abilities Disables Targets	Requires Efficient Cooldown Management Mana Hungry Requires Good Positioning

A hybrid of melee and ranged, the Longbow/Dagger build can function as a melee skirmisher or a ranged fighter. The weapon combination allows players to engage in the range of their own choosing, and keep their opponents guessing.

The build includes tools for kiting opponents, as well as mitigating damage. However, the high cooldowns on skills requires a good understanding of when is the best time to use them, as it can lead to opponents capitalizing on any openings.

Reaching 60 Perception is a must for any PvP build, to increase Hit Chance. This build uses a balanced mix of Strength and Dexterity to increase both damage and survivability.

Skills and Specialization

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Active Skills
Frenzied Sword Dance		Cooldown ▼ Mad Sword Dance
Camouflage Cloak		Duration ▲ Immune to CC
Brutal Incision		Cooldown ▼ Thunderclouds Bombing
Deadly Marker		Hit ▲
Phantom Smokescreen		Duration ▲
Inject Venom		Lightning Infusion
Ensnaring Arrow		Hit Rate ▲
Flash Arrow		Flash Wave
Strafing		Consecutive Use
Zephyr's Nock		Cooldown ▼
Blitz		-
Shadow Strike		-
Passive Skills
Assassin's Instincts	Destructive Fang	Steady Aim	Wrathful Edge
Murderous Energy	Devoted Shield	Distorted Sanctuary	Forbidden Sanctuary
Defensive Skill
Block Blade

Active Skill Explanation

Similar to Crossbow / Dagger, this build relies on stacking Thundercloud Stacks and detonating them with Brutal Incision. Deadly Marker and Ensnaring Arrow are primarily used to increase Hit rate against opponents, as Thundercloud stacks are accumulated via ranged abilities.

Take Shadow Strike as a gap closer to detonate Thundercloud stacks when it reaches 20.

Flash Arrow' with Flash Wave specialization is just easy damage against group-wide enemies, and should be used all the time.

Camouflage Cloak and Phantom Smokescreen are used for survivability, to disengage from targets, or to mitigate incoming damage.

Blitz is used to refresh skills with long cooldowns, such as Frenzied Sword Dance or Flash Arrow. It can even be used to refresh Camouflage Cloak if needed.

Level Strafing and Zephyr's Nock first, as they provide reliable damage at all stages of the game and can be included in any variation of this build.

Alternative Active Skills

Active Skill			Specialization
Frenzied Sword Dance	>	Arrow Vortex	Tornado
Shadow Strike	>	Decisive Sniping	Damage ▲

If a more long-range play style is preferred, players may choose to forgo Frenzied Sword Dance and Shadow Strike and only close the gap if using Brutal Incision will defeat the opponent.

This means that Brutal Incision will not always be used, even if the opponent has 20 stacks of Thundercloud. This can be for a variety of reasons, including player preference or because the opponent has better tools to deal damage at close range.

Best Weapons

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Primary Weapon
Tevent's Arc of Wailing Death	・Added Attack Speed ・Hit ・Heavy Attack
Weapon Effect
Tevent's Bombardment	Shoots a bonus projectile whenever using Strafing, dealing 54% of Base Damage

Tevent's Arc of Wailing Death is an excellent item for this build, as it not only increases Perception and Dexterity, but also provides a significant damage boost to the Strafing combo.

Secondary Weapon
Lequirus's Wicked Thorns	・Critical Hit ・Heavy Attack Chance ・Hit
Weapon Effect
Lequirus's Gale Blade	Base Damage 50 ▲ for 3s upon using Dagger Mobility Skills.

Lequirus's Wicked Thorns Provides a sizable boost to DPS, thanks to Lequirus's Gale Blade weapon effect. This can be triggered reliably as

Best Armors and Accessories

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Armors
Heroic Hood of the Resistance	・Max Health ・Magic Evasion ・Ranged Evasion
Forsaken Embrace	・Max Health ・Debuff Duration ・Skill Damage Resistance
Heroic Garb of the Resistance	・Max Health ・Magic Evasion ・Ranged Evasion
Shadow Harvester Grips	・Magic Evasion ・Ranged Evasion ・Mana Regen
Shadow Harvester Trousers	・Magic Evasion ・Ranged Evasion ・Mana Regen
Swirling Essence Shoes	・Max Health ・Melee Evasion ・Magic Evasion
Accessories
Clasp of the Conqueror	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Boost ・Buff Duration
Bracers of the Primal King	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Resistance ・Debuff Duration
Etched Alabaster Band	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Boost ・Buff duration
Band of Universal Power	・Skill Damage Boost ・Mana Regen ・Buff duration
Belt of Bloodlust	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Resistance ・Debuff Duration

The choice of Heroic Armor pieces is to increase Hit and Perception, which is essential for penetrating the opponent's Evasion stat.

Shadow Harvester pieces are also taken, not necessarily for the two piece effect, which is substantial, but the armor pieces provide range and Perception.

The rest of the armor stacks numerous sources of evasion while trying to reach the stat breakpoints.

Since this build is both long-range and melee, it needs a good mix of stats. It can reach 60 Perception with 40 Strength and 40 Dexterity when all pieces are fully upgraded.

Best Weapon Mastery

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Gale Arrowhead is the most important passive to get, as it helps manage cooldowns on all skills. The rest of the points go into the sniping tree, for even more damage.

Sorrowful Silence is good to have, as silencing opponents can be quite useful in PvP. Therefore, 6 points in the poison tree should be enough.

The rest of the points go into the Assassination tree, as Maddening Excitement provides a significant boost to attack speed, and the rest of the passives in the tree increase damage.

Best Guardian

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Best Guardian
Lady Knight Kamarshea	Creates a shield for 50% of your Max Mana. Cooldown Speed +40% while the shield is up. Summon ends when the Shield is removed.

Lady Knight Kamarshea is the best option, as not only does she provide a shield that helps keep players stay alive, but she also allows skills to come online faster thanks to her cooldown speed buff.

Whether it is the shield or the duration of the buff, both of these effects greatly benefit this build.

It is important to note that this build does not stack large amounts of Wisdom. The shield provided is not insignificant, but it's not as high as other builds that stack 50 Wisdom or higher.

Consider using Shade Revenant Stheno as a higher DPS alternative if melee encounters are more common.

Skill Rotations and Playstyle

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

How to Play Longbow / Dagger Build
Standard Thunderclouds Rotation Ranged Rotation Utility Skills

Standard Thunderclouds Rotation

▶ ▶ ▶ (x2)▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ (x2)▶ ▶ ▶

Start the rotation by using Inject Venom first to make sure all offensive skills start accumulating ThunderCloud Stacks. Next, cast Deadly Marker and Ensnare Arrow to increase the hit rate on the target. This is crucial because missing attacks also means that Thundercloud Stacks would not be applied, which can mess up the rotation.

Next, perform the Strafing Combo by using Strafing twice, followed by Zephyr's Nock, and another Strafing. Immediately afterwards, close the gap with Shadow Strike, and use Frenzied Sword Dance.

The Mad Sword Dance specialization allows the skill to be used on a selected target while splitting the skill into two uses. It is imperative that this skill be used twice immediately, with Blitz to refresh the cooldown and before Brutal Incision to detonate the Thundercloud stacks.

This is to ensure that Blitz refreshes the cooldown of Frenzied Sword Dance. If Brutal Incision is used in between the two casts, it will refresh the cooldown of that skill instead.

Ranged Rotation

▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ (x2)▶ ▶ ▶

This rotation can be used if going into melee range is unfavorable.

Inject Venom is still part of the rotation to reduce enemy endurances with every attack.

Arrow Vortex is a huge AoE disable and can be used to initiate or as a follow-up to ally crowd-control.

The rest of the damage-dealing skills can be used freely, whenever it is more favorable in the given situation.

Utility Skills

Camouflage Cloak can be used either to initiate a combo on an unsuspecting enemy, or to disengage from an opponent and to reset the fight. 

Phantom Smokecreen is best used to avoid getting bursted down by Melee Combos. This may also be used within the standard rotation during melee, when there is an expectation that the opponent may retaliate using their own Melee Skills.

While Blitz is primarily used to refresh the cooldown of offensive skills, it can also be used to refresh the cooldown of either Camouflage Cloak or Phantom Smokescreen. Do not hesitate to use Blitz for this reason, as it can be the difference maker in surviving engagements.

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