Dual Swords Open World PvP Build

Overview

Weapon: Sword

Focus: Melee DPS

Mode: Open World, Corrupt Dungeon and Mist (Solo)

Strengths

• Great Sustain
• Versatile
• Easy to play

Weaknesses

• Very Common
• Easy to counter

This build is up to date for the November 6, 2024 Horizons Patch #1.

Overview

This Dual Swords Build has been the meta choice for beginners and experienced players for a long time due to how easy it is to pick up for everyone and how cheap it is. Offering incredible versatility and allowing you to play against all kinds of builds without any issues aslong you master the Dual Swords. It does great in both solo and group play and remains one of the top melee builds.

Equipment

Main Hand Weapon

Elder's Dual Swords

Head

Elder's Fiend Cowl

Alternatives ⇅

Cape

Elder's Thetford Cape

Alternatives ⇅

Armor

Elder's Mercenary Jacket

Shoes

Elder's Soldier Boots

Potion

Major Healing Potion

Food

Beef Stew

Alternatives ⇅

Keep in mind: Gear shown in this build is meant as a reference. Choosing the correct tier of gear is very tricky as there are many variables. Some of them being your budget, your spec and minimum Item Power requirements of your guild if used for ZvZ.

You should always check prices based on IP of the items. For example, a masterpiece quality 4.3 Elder's Cryptcandle could be cheaper while providing roughly the same IP as an 8.0.

Usage

Elder's Dual Swords

Heroic Strike — Your main damaging and mobility skill. Try to always use it on cooldown even if you have to use it on mobs or critters while chasting your targets. Each hit you land with this ability will create a stack of Heroic Charges that increases your movement speed and attack speed.

Splitting Slash — This is your go-to CC skill and the skill you will use most when trying to catch and root people. The line created by also does great damage on top of being a much needed CC ability. Parry Strike is good to switch to during matchups against enemies that stay close to you and can counter skills like Death Curse but you will mostly be using Splitting Slash.

Spinning Blades — The main damaging ability of the build, the leap does great damage and you're immune during the jump. Hitting atleast one enemy with this will also boost your attack speed and damage for 3 seconds!

Deep Cuts — This is a constant bleed you apply when auto-attacking enemies and the damage really ramps up as you keep doing it, pairing very well with Elder's Thetford Cape's Chain Lightning. While the damage seems negligible at first, it quickly ramps up and overwhelms targets.

Elder's Mercenary Jacket

Bloodlust — Your main sustain ability and the way you can heal yourself on top of using a Major Healing Potion. This helps a lot with living during engages and outlasting your enemies. Keep in mind that you will only receive the heal 7 times which should be easy to do if you stay on top of your enemy.

Balanced Mind — This passive not only increases your damage output but also provides a slight defense boost. Since every bit of damage matters for this build, it's an obvious choice.

Elder's Fiend Cowl

Purge — Use this skill to purge buffs off your target. Always inspect your target before using the Purge as you should try to remove the most important buffs when you see them. It can remove all active spells or abilities on the targeted player but watch out for Iron Will as it protects the user from losing their buffs.

Aggression — This passive increases your damage and even offers a small boost to your defense which is important as we have plenty of attack speed anyway.

Elder's Soldier Boots

Wanderlust — Even though it takes some time for this run to stack up, once it does, it can propel you much farther and outperform other runs, carrying you to greater distances.

Toughness — This defensive option is preferred for a bit of extra defence but you can use Courier if you run out of weight and need a bit extra to carry more loot.

Elder's Thetford Cape

Chain Lightning — Your cape activates on itself and deals damage to whatever target you hit with your auto-attack every time the cooldown is up. The lightning spreads out to other targets though so be careful not to use this near too many mobs as they will be pulled into you.

Rotations

Damage Burst ↴

• Try to keep up your Heroic Charges up at all times even by using Heroic Strike on mobs when in a fight so you can outmanoeuvre with the increased movement speed. Once you have a chance to hit Splitting Slash, do so and close the distance while they are rooted using Spinning Blade before staying on top of them using Heroic Strike to keep continue your constant auto-attacking. Make sure to use Purge to take off enemy run buffs if they try to flee.

Consumables

Major Healing Potion — The potion allows you to sustain yourself while trading damage with your enemies alongside using Bloodlust.

Beef Stew — This is the best food to use as it improves your overall damage. Always try to use an 8.2 or 8.1 version as it as it offers great value for minimum price. You can also use Cabbage Soup and rely on your mobility before the HP regen kicks in!