Shadowdancer - Spear + Dagger Large Scale PvP Build
- Good Burst Damage
- Good AOE CC
- Versatility
- High Skill Ceiling
- Gear Dependant
- Limited Mobility
Overview
This Spear & Dagger build focuses on maximizing CC and damage in a Large Scale PvP environment, being capable of diving the enemy backline and dealing high damage to squishy targets like ranged DPS. Skills like 
Death From Above make diving the backline trivial as long you manage to channel the skill while 
Phantom Smokescreen helps with keeping you alive and doing damage.
Attributes
Perception
Dexterity
Strength
WisdomTo deal the most damage with this build, focus mainly on Dexterity and Perception. These stats will greatly increase your damage and keep it consistent during fights. Adding some points to Wisdom can help with mana regeneration, making it easier to use your abilities in longer battles, but your main priority should be boosting Dexterity and Perception.
Also, make sure to put 50 points into Strength. This will give you more health, making you harder to kill, and it won’t lower your damage. Strength also increases your heavy attack chance, which is very important for PvP.
Skills
The Spear & Dagger build is a great choice for those players looking to make plays and create openings for their team! While it takes a bit of time to learn the correct times for you to push in and cause chaos, once mastered, it brings incredible value to any large scale PVP, be in a guild or just in the War Games.
Your main damage skills are 
Javelin Surge, 
Culling Arc, 
Cyclonic Fury, and 
Rising Slash. Focus on upgrading these even as part of the leveling experience to boost your early damage output.
Keep enhancing your damage with 
Abyssal Cleave but don't neglect 
Tempest Strike either as its a good way to CC groups of players.
Gale Rush and 
Shadow Strike are both very strong mobility skills and you should upgrade them soon after to lower cooldowns and boost Bind Chance.
Once you start upgrading passive skills, prioritize upgrading 
Malice Surge to increase heavy attack chances. 
Imposing Form works well with the spear’s frequent attacks, providing strong buffs, while 
Retaliatory Strike is essential for boosting your crit rate and is a key part of this build.
For dagger passives, focus on 
Assassin's Instincts to boost crit rate. 
Shadow Walker is an important defensive passive that triggers with dodges or mobility skills, significantly increasing your evasion rate. Finally, 
Wrathful Edge enhances critical damage, working perfectly with the build’s emphasis on crit rate. Together, these passives make the Spear & Dagger build a strong PvP choice with a focus on critical hits and mobility.
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
Ranged Defense |
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Magic Defense |
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Shield Block Penetration Chance  |
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Melee Evasion |
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Cooldown Speed |
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Endurance |
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Max Health |
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Debuff Duration |
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Movement Speed | ||
Damage Reduction |
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Melee Critical Hit Chance  |
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Mana Regen |
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CC Chance |
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Bonus Damage |
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Buff Duration |
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Ignite Damage |
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Damage |
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Melee Hit Chance |
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Skill Damage Boost |
| Melee Hit Chance |
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Movement Speed |
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Cooldown Speed |
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Max Mana |
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Damage |
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Skill Damage Resistance |
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Mana Cost Efficiency |
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Melee Critical Hit Chance |
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Added Attack Speed |
| Ranged Defense |
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Health Regen |
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Debuff Duration |
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Mana Cost Efficiency |
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Cooldown Speed |
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Evasion |
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Buff Duration |
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Ranged Defense |
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Weaken Resistance  | ||
Movement Speed |
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Melee Hit Chance |
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Off-Hand Weapon Attack Chance |
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Weaken Chance |
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Mana Regen |
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Buff Duration |
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Silence Chance |
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Mana Cost Efficiency |
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Melee Hit Chance |
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Cooldown Speed |
| Melee Critical Hit Chance |
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Damage |
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Off-Hand Weapon Attack Chance |
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Melee Critical Hit Chance |
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Cooldown Speed |
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Critical Damage |
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Damage |
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Skill Damage Boost |
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Added Attack Speed |
Spear: Invest 9 points into Face Off for extra Attack Speed and Cooldown speed while 9 points will go into Destroy for extra Skill damage boost. The last point will go into Charge for a bit of extra defense.
Dagger: Selecting Assassination for your Dagger is crucial as it provides a notable damage boost. Allocate 9 points into Poison for Cooldown Speed while the last point 6 points should go into Disguise for extra evasion.
Rotations
- Prepare yourself and your team with
Unyielding Sentinel before targeting an enemy player in the back of the opposing team. Use Death From Above to jump up into the air and land on top of them before using Phantom Smokescreen to deny range damage.
- Use Cyclonic Fury to deal damage to all enemies then follow up by forcing the Prone debuff on enemies with Tempest Strike (jump while using to skill to do this).
- Finish the rotation with Javelin Surge in the largest group of enemies, maximizing damage dealt. Lastly, use Shadow Strike to get out and reposition.
- Use this rotation to burst down single enemies away from their party. Open with Shadow Strike before using Gale Rush to stay on the target and stun them so you can easily land Abyssal Cleave for a stun.
- Continue the rotation with Cyclonic Fury and Culling Arc to build stacks before using Rising Slash to pop the debuffs and deal extra damage. Extend the rotation with Tempest Strike and aim to push them into a wall for an extended stun before using Javelin Surge to finish them off.
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.
