Disciple - Staff + Sword PvE Tank Build
- Easy to Play
- Tanky
- Group Reliant
- Low Movement
- Off-meta
Overview
This Disciple Staff and Sword build combination for PVE is perfect for newer players that want an alternative from Sword + Greatsword while remaining a good choice for tanking in dungeons or any other PVE content in Throne and Liberty. This build has the potential to also deal good damage and play at range. This build brings a lot of damage potential even outside dungeons, allowing you to clear open world mobs and contracts much easier even though its considered an off-meta choice by most players.
Attributes
Strength
Dexterity
Wisdom
PerceptionWith this build, your primary attribute focus should be strength and dexterity, as they provide high max HP and boost your defensive stats, improving your resistance to ranged, magic, and melee attacks, along with enhancing health regeneration. Your secondary focus should be on wisdom and perception, which increase your cooldown speed and damage output.
Skills
For Staff offensive skills, you have 
Frost Smokescreen for high AOE DPS while 
Judgment Lightning is a fantastic skill to deal high damage while also spreading to multiple nearby enemies in a similar way to 
Chain Lightning, making the build more than capable of dealing with multiple enemies at the same time.
The Staff also provides some defensive skills that shouldn't be ignored like 
High Focus greatly increasing your evasion while 
Salvation Chain is the perfect panic button to use if you see your HP slipping or need an extra cooldown to use in a pinch.
The 
Counter Barrier Sword & Shield ability is your most essential defensive tool, making it a priority to upgrade first. It allows you to effectively counter both ranged and magical attacks, significantly boosting your survivability. In addition, 
Shield Strike is invaluable for maintaining aggro on the enemies you pull, and it works seamlessly with 
Provoking Roar when you need to control multiple mobs at once, ensuring they stay focused on you.
Shield Throw is your bread and butter to help with keeping AOE mob aggro as it can be used two times and hits multiple enemies based on how you position it.
Regarding passives, this build incorporates great sword defensive passives which makes it much easier you to stay alive. The primary aim is to enhance this passive defense with passives such as 
Aegis Shield which increases your defenses based on your shield block chance and is the reason why you should always aim to acquire swords with high shield block chance. 
Skillful Evasion and 
Impenetrable increases your defense based on the amount of mobs stacked around you.
The Staff comes into play with some defensive skills too while also helping you sustain mana as 
Mana Amp and 
Asceticism coupled with 
Resilient Mind makes it very difficult for you to run out of mana while using this build. The main damage improvement comes from 
Forbidden Sanctuary and 
Flame Condensation though!
Equipment
These are the first items you should strive for through the leveling period as they are very easy to get and upgrade or trait as needed. However, you shouldn't try to trait these items too much as you won't be spending too much time playing with this setup before you start changing pieces into the Midgame. The green accessories however are very easy to trait as you can craft many of them quickly in order to get the correct traits so you should consider traiting them until you change into purples. The same goes for the blue ring as you keep it for a long time.
This is the gear you should transition to once you're leveled to 50 and start grinding gear. It is comprised of gear you can get either from dungeons or by completing Litographs, they are relatively easy to trait up and you will spend most of the time wearing this set before advancing into the late game so traiting these items is very important and should be your main focus.
This is the current endgame gear you should aim for, and while it isn't easy to acquire, it offers great power without the need of acquiring archboss gear pieces. However, items like 
Tevent's Fangs of Fury or other archboss weapons are superior but difficult to acquire for the majority of players. If you do manage to get the archboss weapons for your build, feel free to use them over the weapons shown here.
Weapon Masteries
| Provoke & Counter | Melee Defense |
 |
Health Regen |
|
Decayed Sword God |
|
Max Health |
|
All Evasion |
|
Impregnable Stance |
|
Buff Duration |
|
Damage Reduction |
|
Indomitable Spirit |
| Boss | Melee Hit Chance  |
|
Damage |
|
Undefeated Perseverance |
|
Max Health |
|
Stun Resistance |
|
Desperate Evasion |
|
Mana Cost Efficiency |
|
Melee Hit Chance |
|
Subjugator's Punishment |
| Collision | Max Health |
|
Melee Hit Chance |
|
Calculated Rush |
|
Damage Reduction |
|
Weaken Chance |
|
Steely Physique |
|
Damage |
|
Melee Defense |
|
Blade of Rage |
| Mana | Melee Defense |
|
Mana Regen |
|
Spell Flexibility |
|
Magic Hit Chance |
|
All Evasion |
|
Mana Blessing |
|
Mana Regen |
|
Melee Defense |
|
Reverberation Shield |
| Destroy | Damage |
|
Magic Hit Chance |
|
Fatal Incantation |
|
Damage |
|
Mana Regen |
|
Mana Intensification |
|
Cooldown Speed |
|
Bonus Damage |
|
Strange Spacetime |
| Attribute | Mana Regen |
|
Weaken Chance |
|
Flame Wound |
|
Max Mana |
|
Magic Hit Chance |
|
Ignition Booster |
|
Weaken Chance |
|
Wisdom |
|
Brutal Destruction |
Sword: Investing 9 points into Boss as it is a great choice as it provides you with extra PVE defenses for fighting bosses, along with some additional health. The remaining 6 points will be allocated to Provoke & Counter for extra block chance.
Staff: Allocate 9 points into Destroy to increase cooldown speed and overall damage as it helps a great deal with this build while the remaining points should go into Attribute.
Rotations
- Start by buffing yourself and your party with
Stalwart Bastion before continuing with 
A Shot at Victory to boost your Shield Strike damage.
- Follow up with your Staff rotation: Chain Lightning, Judgment Lightning two times and Frost Smokescreen two times as well until your Chain Lightning cooldown is up and you can use it again. Use Provoking Roar in the end to finish off the rotation and make sure you maintain aggro.
- This rotation is intended for use in open world dungeons or when AOE grinding mobs. Begin by pulling the mobs close, rounding them up before using Provoking Roar to force aggro onto yourself and continuing with Frost Smokescreen to deal AOE burn damage, coupling up with Chain Lightning before using Frost Smokescreen and transitioning to Judgment Lightning before finishing up the mobs with Shield Throw.
Counter Barrier: Use this skill when you expect heavy damage, but it can also be used during the beginning of a boss fight.
High Focus: Use this in the same manner as Counter Barrier as it increases your evasion and makes it so you can evade mob hits.
Immortal Pride: This ability is a powerful buff for both you and your party, temporarily boosting max HP and offering survivability during difficult boss fights. It’s especially useful for enduring mechanics that could otherwise wipe the group. Make sure to activate it when you notice a party member's health dropping dangerously low or preemptively before large AoE attacks that deal high damage, ensuring your team has the extra durability needed to survive.
Comments
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.
