Gladiator Combat Builds and Job Discussion

[Melchiah]

Currently have a level 30 Gladiator on Triniel, and I'm considering alternatives to my combat build. I've thrown the idea around of using the Dual Wield stigma and two swords, but I haven't done the math on attack speed versus using a two handed weapon. I wanted to get some ideas about manastone sets and how to tune a dual wield setup. I'm willing to try good ideas and post results.

[Trichocyst]

I'm gonna hit 30 today myself. I've been socketing crit first, then attack, then HP, then accuracy. No clue if this is the way to go, really, but it's the way I've gone. I'm happy with polearms, but would be interested in your results. I just picked up ankle snare at the advice of Veyron in hopes that I'll be more effective PVP where I am just clumsy at the moment.

[Fallyn]

I love my damage output of Glad, but I don't get to play it often as its the job i play when my gf is playing. Currently only lv23 too. I was always told by /4 that dual-wield is just a waste of time, so would be interesting to see the results.

[Melchiah]

I'm tempted to believe that DW as a half-assed attempt with a half-assed gear set thrown together would be a waste of time, yes. I'm trying to make some HQ swords for myself to try it out with; even if it does turn out to be substandard damage output, it gives me something to play with, right?

[Halion]

I like D/W because it reminds me of ninja, but the kill speed seems to be about the same so I also don't feel like I'm weaker for it. The difference so far at mid 20s - in a normal PVE kill Polearm is all skill damage and you might swing once or twice in between on more defensey/HP stuff while Swords will hit a lot of times between skills since the skills do less damage. IMO that = more chance to knock down which = good and I interrupt almost every skill cast against me now. Apparently some people find this laughable, as some Asmo made a bazaar just to tell me I was fail for D/W. Nochsana General almost killed me for being so "fail" at 25 over another 28 Glad with Polearm so... maybe it changes but at this point and especially when you get Inferno it's completely viable. Probably want a GS later on no matter what for AOE smacking clumped up PVP opponents, so either way it's not like you would choose one 100% over the other. I'm wearing accuracy rings right now because the blue ones are just much nicer than any crit ring available for me atm, with crit everywhere else except an attack and flight time as placeholders where I ran out of crit stones.

[Syntex]

I think DW became good with you got the 10% on hit godstones to do like 50 extra damage and using 2 of those with +attack speed racked up the damage quickly.

You can get them for cheap from the AP vendor in your major city but with half-assed gear and next to no +attack speed then your probably better off with a 2-hander since they crit harder and knockdown but its up to you.

[Veyron]

Dual wield in a nutshell:

-Can you get 450 Crit? Yes? Great! No? Bad.
-Do you have Attack Speed +%? No? That sucks, put your swords away.
-Are you fighting a stationary target? Yes? Awesome!*
-Are you skill weaving (weaving auto-attacks into your skills)? No? You best be.
-Am I an a PvP or PvE situation? (Ok fine, PvPvE too) Asmo's aren't very good dual wield targets *

If you can meet the criteria suggested, dual wield is more than worth it for PvE, it's a great way to grind and will speed up your solo kill speed by a decent margin! That is why most Glad's choose to wait til 40+ to DW, until then being able to get all of those together is pretty rough &/or extremely expensive or, some of the items may not even be available quite yet (Crafted Swords with Atk Speed +% etc).

*Dual wielding in PvP Air Combat is viable as most of the time you are chasing a target, your AoE skills will not be useful, etc. But, so is carrying a bow!

[arus2001]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but "weaving" doesn't seem to make kills faster for me.

[Trichocyst]

Totally newbing here, but what's the weaving technique about? Fended off two PKs today while doing some gathering. Feels good man.

[Drex]

Weaving is timing your skills so that they cancel out your attack animation, instead of just spamming them. When you swing, the damage is done at the at the beginning of the attack, but the timer for your next swing doesn't start until the end of the animation, and that timer pauses when you do a skill animation. By using the skill right as your swing starts, you replace the attack animation with the skill animation, so you basically get your regular swings for free.

It stops being useful around the time you can spam skills nonstop without ever waiting on cooldowns, but until then it makes you kill a little faster. If you're doing it right, your char will only look like they swung once, but the swing damage AND skill damage will both pop up on the screen at the same time.

It's not a humongous difference but it does speed things up a little, and you can set a macro to pretty much do it for you with /delays equal to your weapon speed in between your skills on the macro.

If you wanna try it out, do it with a skill that doesn't swing, like Rage or Provoke. Should be able to make it so your char doesn't even swing their weap when you weave with one of those, just moves their hands slightly and then resets as the damage pops up.

[Halion]

I kind of merged 2 thoughts before, I didn't mean to say more knockdowns for D/W, and I left out mentioning that at low levels you don't get knockdowns that often so losing them doesn't matter much.
I definitely would not say to never D/W if your crit isn't capped. Maybe it will change but atm it seems like whatever is the strongest weapon you can get will do about the same.

Here's something I've been thinking about and I'd like to hear thoughts from other Glads - I've noticed a lot of people seem to think that Templars should get priority on the best plate and swords pretty much no matter what. I saw reasons for item prioritizing in FFXI but here.. this is a PVP game which means everyone needs defensive stats, Glads who D/W need 2 good swords rather than just 1, a lot of the items in question don't have relevant stats such as block and enmity, and Glads can tank in place of a Temp for a lot of PVE things in groups up until at least 35, plus are off-tanks all the time on top of soloing as much as anyone else. Personally I was pretty annoyed when a so-so green sword dropped in NTC and with no preset rules discussed everyone was told not to lot on the "Temp weapon" and the person who won the lot was asked to relinquish it.

[Fallyn]

What stigmas should i use at what levels? I know ankle snare at whatever level that is, but before that?

[Trichocyst]

Crippling Cut is fairly early and is super awesome. I used that and improved stamina then added Ankle Snare at 30. Ankle Snare will definitely help you PVP whether it's playing aggressively or needing to flee in terror.

[Fallyn]

Crippling Cut is fairly early and is super awesome. I used that and improved stamina then added Ankle Snare at 30. Ankle Snare will definitely help you PVP whether it's playing aggressively or needing to flee in terror.

Ah ok, yeh I currently run with Crippling and Stamina, usually just use Stamina as a free heal PvE though lol.

[SilverBreeze]

Should always have Crippling Cut on if you're using 2 handers from 22 onward.

Improved Stamina is nice but I only found myself using it as a pot so I dropped it for Severe Weakening Blow so I could use Body Blow without it being linked to my defense down.

It's a matter of taste really between those two 20-30.

[Veyron]

Finally to the level where Dual Wielding is viable, may get Xenophon's Sword instead of Polearm.. ffs I have like 10min to decide

[Fallyn]

Should always have Crippling Cut on if you're using 2 handers from 22 onward.

Improved Stamina is nice but I only found myself using it as a pot so I dropped it for Severe Weakening Blow so I could use Body Blow without it being linked to my defense down.

It's a matter of taste really between those two 20-30.

Didn't think about that, I might try this too actually.

[Veyron]

Aion™ Online :: Character & Legion

Bricks were shat. Almost a dream build a month into the game, congrats to him & stuff.

[Fallyn]

Aion™ Online :: Character & Legion

Bricks were shat. Almost a dream build a month into the game, congrats to him & stuff.

Demon Hunter lol. DH pretty much live in abyss and don't talk to us "normal people".

[Eanae]

Yeah that guy is insane. That weapon makes me angry though. Another Elyos weapon with no Asmodian counter-part. Pigeons really get catered to.