Best Spellblade Dagger / Staff Build (PvP)

This Spellblade Dagger and Staff PVP build for Throne and Liberty (TL) takes on the role of an assassin capable of taking down a single target in a flash in and out of range. Read on to learn how to use the Spellblade Dagger and Staff build for PVP, including the best gears to equip, skill rotations, traits, and more.

Spellblade Dagger / Staff Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Build Summary
Dagger and Staff	Focus: Small/Large Scale PvP, Burst Damage, Stealth Stat Priority: Strength, Perception
Skill Setup
Pros	Cons
Adept at Burst Damage Hard to Focus Ranged Options	Squishy when Caught Skill-extensive Needs Proper Skill Timing

The Dagger / Staff weapon combination essentially fills in the role of safely securing the kills due to their ability to hop in and out of combat. The Staff / Dagger's playstyle revolves around pelting groups of enemies from afar, then swooping in on low-health targets at opportune moments!

Due to this playstyle and the build's squishy nature, it requires the player to have the wits, guts, and know-how to execute this combination properly.

As a general rule for most builds that make use of ranged, prioritize getting 60 Perception to increase the consistency of hitting your skill rotations as the majority of PVP builds will be stacking Evasion. Furthermore, this also increases your range, allowing you to stay in the backline. The additional buff duration also extends your Lightning Infusion and Victorious Energy!

The second priority would be 50 Strength to provide more durability, increasing your survivability in combat. Reaching 50 also offers additional Heavy Attack Chance to synergize with Judgement Lightning!

The remaining points should allow you to reach 30-40 Dexterity, which increases your chances of evading hits and ability to dole out critical hits.

Gear Builder

Skills and Specialization

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Active Skills
Serial Fire Bombs				Instant Activation Projectile Speed ▲ Range ▲ Able to Move
Inferno Wave				Consecutive Use
Chain Lightning ▼ Chain Thunder				Chain Damage Guaranteed Damage Transfer Chain Thunder
Ice Spear ▼ Ice Spear Bombardment				Damage ▲ Ice Spear Bombardment
High Focus ▼ Victorious Energy				Victorious Energy
Judgement Lightning				Chain Damage Guaranteed Damage Transfer
Infernal Meteor				-
Cleaving Moonlight				Consecutive Use
Shadow Strike				Range ▲ Shadow Escape
Inject Venom ▼ Lightning Infusion				Lightning Infusion
Brutal Incision				-
Camouflage Cloak				Cooldown ▼ Immune to CC
Passive Skills
Assassin's Step		Assassin's Instincts		Shadow Walker		Wrathful Edge
Mana Amp		Flame Condensation		Echoic Barrier		Forbidden Sanctuary
Defensive Skill
Block Blade

Active Skills

For the active skills, this PVP will utilize a 5/7 split between the Staff and Dagger, mainly taking supplementary skills from the Dagger while focusing the main damage on the Staff.

The Staff skills will utilize Burning DoTs and Lightning burst potential along with Ice Spear Bombardment to prevent opponents from escaping. Furthermore Victorious Energy is included to answer situational moments during combat.

• Serial Fire Bombs - This will be your go-to skill for spreading the Burning weakness DoTs, enhancing your Lightning skills.
• Inferno Wave - Often a filler spell during rotations. Use this to quickly reach max Burning stacks after casting Serial Fire Bombs.
• Ice Spear Bombardment - Easily your highest damaging skill when you have not set up opponents with Burning and singles out an opponent within your range.
• Chain Thunder - Due to its quick refresh, always use this off cooldown to make use of the boost from Burning DoTs. Use this alongside Ice Spear Bombardment on a single target to fully capitalize on the DoT.
• Judgement Lightning - Best used after exiting stealth to get the guaranteed critical or to finish off low-health opponents.
• Infernal Meteor - Best used when all of your other skills are on cooldown and you are safe to proceed with casting down hellfire on groups of enemies. You can also remove Lightning Infusion's specialization to get the anti-healing!
• Victorious Energy - You can use this skill either defensively or offensively. Defensively, it allows you to have increased chances of evading key CCs. Offensively, you can use this to ensure your Execute combo.

The Dagger skills, on the other hand, are mainly included for its stealth package along with some skills that allow you to close in on enemies to execute them.

• Cleaving Moonlight - This will be your go-to skill when it comes to dealing damage up-close given its high burst damage with the Consecutive Use specialization.
• Shadow Strike - This skill is used to quickly teleport behind an enemy opponent after whittling them down with Staff Skills. With the Shadow Escape specialization, you can safely return to your prior position after killing a target. Shadow Strike has the same range as Ice Spear Bombardment when the Range specialization is applied.
• Lightning Infusion - Keep this buff active at all times to increase your overall damage by lessening your opponent's resistances. Remember to use the second cast after closing in on an enemy!
• Brutal Incision - Always use this skill last as it allows you to deal an absurd amount of burst damage on low-health enemies.
• Camouflage Cloak - No build with the Dagger does not include Camouflage Cloak. With stealth's utility, you can either use this offensively or defensively. With the immune to CC specialization, use this just before you are tagged with a CC skill to avoid getting burst down.

Prioritize leveling your Camouflage Cloak and all your Staff Skills afterward, especially Chain Thunder and Ice Spear Bombardment.

Passive Skills

The best passives to prioritize leveling are Shadow Walker and Mana Amp as they fully apply bonuses to this build's playstyle.

• Shadow Walker - Increases your resistances and evasion after using mobility skills.
• Mana Amp - Increases your HP and Mana by a decent flat amount, giving you more durability and leeway to cast your skills.

Assassin's Step is included because it lets you escape the thick of battle by increasing your speed after assassinating a target. The next skill you use will also be cost-free, so look to take advantage of that!

Assassin's Instincts, and Wrathful Edge, while simple, provide a massive increase to your critical hit economy by increasing the consistency and potency of the damage.

Furthermore, PVP is all about the up-time of your skills, so including Echoic Barrier to lessen your chances of being CC'ed or silenced will improve your overall value. Remember, staying alive is the best contribution to battle!

To further amp up the build's damage, Flame Condensation and Forbidden Sanctuary are slotted in. Flame Condensation allows your burning DoTs to deal more damage and increase your chances of a Heavy Attack. Forbidden Sanctuary further boosts your damage potential overall.

Active and Passive Alternatives

Active Skill			Specialization
Lightning Infusion	>	Phantom Smokescreen	Evasion ▲
Lightning Infusion	>	Frost Smokescreen	Burning Smokescreen
Brutal Incision	>	Inner Peace	Immune to CC

Depending on the situation, you can change some active skills around to suit your needs:

• Phantom Smoke Screen - If you are playing in largescale PVP and need a means to provide more ways for your allies to survive.
• Frost Smokescreen - If you need an extra means of mobility and self-peel by leaving an area that inflicts Burning DoTs.
• Inner Peace - If the enemy team has access to multiple means of CC that warrants a second means to negate CC.

All Weapon Skills

Best Weapons

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Primary Weapon
Talus's Crystalline Staff	・Cooldown Speed ・Heavy Attack ・Hit
Weapon Effect
Talus's Cold Stone	When Stunned, trigger Petrification: Freeze for 1s to protect yourself. Cooldown 60s.

The primary weapon for this build will be Talus's Crystalline Staff mainly for its weapon effect, Talus's Cold Stone. It is best to improve your chances of survival by mitigating CC in PVP scenarios, which this effect covers since it turns the player to stone for a few seconds after getting engaged. This build perfectly counters weapon combinations such as the Dagger/Greatsword!

Furthermore, the weapon provides a whopping +9 to Dexterity, giving us an easy route to access the additional 100 Critical Hit and 15 Bonus Damage.

The best traits to give Talus's Crystalline Staff would be Hit, Heavy Attack, and Critical Hit to further synergize with our Staff Skills. It is best to prioritize Hit as it is the golden stat in PVP.

As an alternative, the Staff of the Umbramancer is a solid choice since it helps us reach our Strength and Perception caps while also trying to address the cooldown problems this build possesses.

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.

The secondary weapon for this build will be Lequirus's Wicked Thorns since it provides an additional boost to our Perception, allowing the build to increase its chances of hitting an opponent accurately.

Furthermore, its weapon effect Lequirus's Gale Blade increases this build's DPS by staying mobile. This weapon effect can be triggered reliably as this build constantly activates mobility skills to achieve its game plan.

List of All Weapons

Best Armors and Accessories

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

Armors
Ascended Guardian Hood	・Melee Evasion ・Magic Evasion ・Mana Regen
Ancient Tapestry Mantle	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Resistance ・Debuff Duration
Shadow Harvester Tunic	・Ranged Evasion ・Magic Evasion ・Buff Duration
Ascended Guardian Gloves	・Melee Evasion ・Magic Evasion ・Attack Speed
Shadow Harvester Trousers	・Ranged Evasion ・Magic Evasion ・Mana Regen
Sabatons of the Field General	・Melee Evasion ・Ranged Evasion ・Move Speed
Accessories
Clasp of the Conqueror	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Boost ・Buff Duration
Bracers of the Primal King	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Resistance ・Debuff Duration
Amber Dimensional Band	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Boost ・Buff Duration
Etched Alabaster Band	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Boost ・Buff Duration
Belt of Bloodlust	・Max Health ・Skill Damage Resistance ・Debuff Duration

This Staff and Dagger equipment focuses on gathering as much Perception and Strength to reach the caps of your core skills. The sub-stats with the armor will be focused on stacking as much Evasion stats as possible while keeping the thresholds of Perception and Strength in mind.

The build also utilizes some 2-part bonuses that attempt to answer its Cooldown problems. The Ascended set provides an additional 21% to Cooldown Speed. The Shadow Harvester set then slots the build with a flat Critical Hit Damage.

The defensive traits focus more on Evasion rather than Endurance as you should always be in the backlines, meaning you should rarely tank hits and focus on proper positioning and timing to reliably avoid some attacks.

Furthermore, this build has a mediocre HP baseline, so if you would like more durability, you can trade Cooldown Speed for defenses with Heroic Hood of the Resistance.

Best Weapon Mastery

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

For the Weapon Masteries, allocate your points to mastery trees that get Damage, Cooldown Speed, and Evasion as early as possible.

The Staff's Attribute tree provides a massive boost to Burning DoTs! After that, spend the remaining 6 points in the Destroy tree to provide additional Cooldown Speed, Skill Damage, and consistency with Critical Hits.

The Dagger's Assassination Tree provides the brunt of Skill Damage and the potency of Critical Hits! After that, spend the remaining 6 points in the Disguise Tree to provide some resistances and evasion.

How to Get Weapon Mastery Points

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.

As this is a frail weapon combination, utilizing Lady Knight Kamarshea's mana shield as a panic button upon getting engaged is necessary to keep yourself alive after getting engaged on. Staying alive means you can take more opponents out before going down yourself!

For alternatives, you can slot in Pale Nemesis Hartach if you are confident that your ability to dole out damage can consistently proc the stealth after taking out a target.

All Guardians

Skill Rotations

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Summary				Skills				Weapons
Equipment			Mastery			Guardian			Rotations

How to Play Staff / Dagger
AoE Sleep Burning / Lightning Combo

Note: If the skills icons are confusing, some of the skill icons indicated here are using their specialized variants.

Ranged AoE DPS

▶ x3 ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ (optional)

The main goal of this bread-n'-butter combo is to inflict as much damage from a safe distance by utilizing the staff's innate synergies between Burn-inflicting spells and Lightning skills.

After buffing yourself up with Lightning Infusion, sequence Serial Fire Bombs, Ice Spear Bombardment, and Inferno Wave to set up your additional burst damage with Chain Thunder and Judgement Lightning.

If the damage was insufficient in whittling their health down to less than 50%, you can repeat this rotation or reposition to find an opportune time to use Infernal Meteor.

The key for your Staff combos is to use your Fire skills as a primer for your Lightning skills, so if you choose to slot in other damaging spells, follow this philosophy to maximize your damage.

Finisher Combo

▶ ▶ x2 ▶ ▶

The main goal of this combo is to finish enemies off after whittling down an enemy with your spells from range or when you spot a vulnerable priority target that you are confident in bursting down.

After casting Victorious Energy to ensure your hits while avoiding getting burst down, quickly blink behind the opponent by using Shadow Escape and execute them by quickly bursting them down with Cleaving Moonlight. Finish the opponent with an enhanced Brutal Incision, then reposition back using Shadow Escape's second cast.

As an additional tip, you can weave in a Camouflage Cloak before or after the combo. Before the combo, it will increase your damage by guaranteeing criticals. After the combo, you can safely reposition to find your next target!

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