Spellbreaker - Defense GS/Dagger Duelist

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Direct damage, Boon removal and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on May 21, 2023 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A duelist Power Spellbreaker PvP build with a healthy mix of defense and offense.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Dagger/Shield

Utility

Slot Changes

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Bull's Charge - mix of defense and offense, the CC could set up burst combos while the evasion and mobility are useful for getting out of tough situations and building some distance.

• Banner of Defense - survivability boost that also adds a support element to the build outside 1v1s.

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Equipment

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Shield

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Full Counter (FC) recharges your Burst skills Arcing Slice and Breaching Strike. Always try to use it when you can refresh their duration, except if you're under heavy pressure in which case you can use FC purely for defensive means.

• Always try to make sure Full Counter goes off: briefly move into hostile AoE spells, tank Mesmer clones or Ranger pets, etc.

• FC is both one of the best defensive and offensive skill in the build as it blocks, evades, grants Stability, and performs an unblockable AoE CC attack when triggered.

• Both burst skills and Full Counter cost adrenaline. If you only need a little more until you can use them then Versatile Rage can get you there.

General

• Settings: disable auto targeting, otherwise it'd be impossible to use skills like Rush for disengaging. For more tips check out our settings guide.

• Playstyle: this build is all about weaving hard hitting skills into chains of block and evade frames while tethering yourself to the target with Magebane Tether as often as possible. The combos aren't set in stone, rather you'll need to adapt based on what CDs are available. Minimize melee contact whenever you can't outdamage your opponent, dodge/block/evade as many things as possible, and spike targets when an opening shows.
  • Example: Bladetrail from outside melee range ⇒ dodge to your target ⇒ Arcing Slice ⇒ Whirlwind Attack
  • Any burst skill can proc Magebane Tether, including Full Counter.
  • Whirlwind Attack, Arcing Slice, Aura Slicer and Breaching Strike are your main damaging skills, everything else is basically a filler or something that's used to set up burst / survive enemy burst.
• Fast Hands reduces the CD of weapon swapping to 5 seconds, which keeps gameplay rather fast paced with minimal downtime. As a result you won't be auto attacking much unless you're cleaving a downed enemy.

• Despite its range, Bull's Charge is best used in melee to make it harder to react to.

• CCing a target removes a boon and deals damage/grants adrenaline via Loss Aversion.

• All movement skills remove the Immobilized condition - list of movement skills in the build:
  • Greatsword: Whirlwind Attack and Rush. These two skills also provide excellent mobility both in and out of combat.
  • Dagger/Shield: Aura Slicer, Shield Bash, and the burst skill Breaching Strike. The Dagger skills are also excellent gap closers.
  • Rampage: Kick (Rampage), Dash, and Seismic Leap.
  • Utility: Bull's Charge

• No Escape briefly roots enemies in place after you CC them. This turns skills like Full Counter and Disrupting Stab into great setup tools for your hard hitting abilities such as Arcing Slice or Breaching Strike.

Conditon cleansing & general survival

• Brawler's Recovery and Warrior's Sprint will be used to manage condition levels before resorting to mass cleanses.

• Mending cleanses 5 conditions and should be used pretty much on CD, assuming you're missing a large chunk of health or need to deal with conditions.

• Burst skills cleanse conditions whenever they strike thanks to Cleansing Ire.
  • Getting Blinded could make your Burst skill miss and thus the condition cleansing won't happen which is rather awkward. Dodging however grants Resistance via Resilient Roll which renders Blind ineffective, increasing the chance of a successful Cleansing Ire proc.

• Adrenal Health provides a steady stream of healing as long as you're landing those Burst skills (F1-F2).

• "Shake It Off!" (SIO) is both a stun break and a source of condition removal for you and your team.

• Kite, a LOT. You want to run out of harm's way using mobility skills as much as possible before resorting to major defensive CDs.

• If taken Bull's Charge is great if you want to run away from pressure as it can build quite the gap while providing an evade frame.

• If taken Banner of Defense should be used as often as possible while under pressure. Even at or near max HP the barrier and Aegis can be useful. Its range is quite large so try to support nearby allies with it too. For a few seconds the banner also works as a light field for your finishers. Using Aura Slicer for example creates a Light Aura.

• Endure Pain is the best defensive skill you could have against direct damage but it has to be used preemptively (unless you used it to break stun). Keep in mind that you're still vulnerable to condition damage, CC, and even life steal from skills such as Enchanted Daggers!

Rampage

• Rampage is what you use when you quickly want to burst/CC a target, or desperately need mobility to either chase down someone, or run away from a fight. Bonus points if you manage to attach Magebane Tether just before using your elite.

• CC skills barely do any damage anymore, most of the damage in this form comes from autoattacks and Dash.

• Throw Boulder is a popular opener, allowing you to CC targets from range and then either follow up with Dash for burst damage or Seismic Leap to keep the CC chain rolling.

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