Warden - Longbow + Sword PvE Build
- Easy to Play
- Tanky
- Great Healing
- Group Reliant
- Low Movement
- Off-meta
Overview
Longbow and Sword build for PVE which is perfect for newer players that want an alternative from Sword + Wand or 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 heal itself well without the need for too much attention from a healer as Nature's Blessing and Healing Touch remain very potent healing abilities.
Attributes
With 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, while also improving your ability to heal both yourself and your party members.
Skills
As far as Longbow offensive skills go, you only have Zephyr's Nock & Strafing and you should try to level them up as early as possible to help you progress easier when solo farming mobs while Deadly Marker is a great debuff that enhances your overall damage (and your party's!).
The Longbow also acts as your healing weapon with a combination between Nature's Blessing and Healing Touch allowing you to heal yourself throughout fights and making it very difficult for mobs to kill you. Keep in mind however that you can also use these two skills to heal your teammates while in a pinch. Also make sure to also upgrade the Earth's Blessing to boost your overall healing!
Counter Barrier stands out as your most crucial defensive ability. Upgrading it first is strongly advised, as it enables you to counter both ranged and magic attacks effectively. Additionally, Shield Strike is fantastic for keeping aggro on the mobs you pull, pairing perfectly with Provoking Roar if you need to hold aggro of multiple mobs.
Annihilating Slash is your bread and butter for keeping AOE mob aggro as it can be used two times and hits all mobs around you so make sure to upgrade it too.
Regarding passives, this build incorporates mostly defensive passives which makes it almost ridiculously easy for you to stay alive. The primary aim is to enhance this passive defense with passives such as Distorted Sanctuary, Skillful Evasion and Devoted Shield providing great defense.
Resilient Mind comes into play as your main passive helping your mana sustain while Impenetrable increases your defense based on the amount of mobs stacked around you, pairing perfectly with 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.
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 |
Support | Max Health |
Magic Defense |
Vitality of Dew |
Movement Speed |
Buff Duration |
Anti-magic Arts |
Magic Evasion |
Perception |
Grace Song | ||||||||
Check | Ranged Hit Chance |
Move Speed |
Wedge of Oppression |
Max Mana |
Mana Regen |
Gale Arrowhead |
Movement Speed |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Phantom Snare | ||||||||
Sniping | Ranged Hit Chance +20 |
Ranged Crit Hit Chance |
Pointy Throns |
Bonus Damage |
Damage |
Critical Nock |
Added Attack Speed |
Ranged Crit Hit Chance |
Brutal Shooter |
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.
Longbow: Allocate 9 points into Support for extra resistances while the rest of 6 points should be invested into Check to boost your cooldown speed!
Rotations
- Start by debuffing the boss with Deadly Marker before moving into range with 2x Strafing followed by Zephyr's Nock and A Shot at Victory to boost your Shield Strike damage.
- Thanks to Strafing, Zephyr's Nock cooldown should be ready by the time you move into boss range so use it again next. Follow with Healing Touch on yourself to keep your health up (and keep casting this skill throughout the fight to maintain 3 stacks).
- Finally, use Annihilating Slash twice to finish up the rotation.
- 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 before continuing with A Shot at Victory to boost your sword skill damage. Use Shield Strike to maintain aggro before following up with Annihilating Slash in the middle of the pack to keep the aggro.
- This rotation focuses on boosting the healing received by targets affected by your Healing Touch (or yourself). Once you've placed a Healing Touch buff on a target (preferably 3 times to have 3 stacks), continue by using Nature's Blessing to boost their regeneration.
Counter Barrier: Activate this skill when you expect heavy damage, but it can also be used during the beginning of a boss fight.
Stalwart Bastion: Use this in the same manner as Immortal Pride to boost your whole party's resistances and make it easier for your team to tank boss mechanics or stay alive if pulling too many mobs.
Immortal Pride: This is a great buff for yourself and your party members, temporarily increasing max HP and allowing you to survive mechanics that would otherwise wipe the party. Make sure that you use this when you notice one of your party members getting a bit too low on HP or as a pre-buff against AOE attacks that deal high damage.
Comments
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