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The Outrider class, equipped with Greatsword and Crossbows, offers a high degree of flexibility when it comes to playing the DPS role in all sorts of content inThrone and Liberty. It covers both melee and ranged combat, and players can easily tweak a few of its available skills to adapt to either PvE or PvP scenarios.
The following Greatsword and Crossbows build focuses on dealing single-target damage for burning through high-health enemies. It works extremely well in dungeons likeDeath’s Abyss inThrone and Liberty, and you can expect it to be just as effective whenever you’re in need of a build with burst damage and crowd control. Here’s how to set it up.
Throne and Liberty Outrider Build Overview and Stats
This is abruiser build that combines damage with survivability, giving players the ability to tank more damage than the usual glass cannon character while still dealing respectable DPS in both solo and group content.
Crossbows will be our main-hand weapon for this build since they have better basic attacks than the Greatsword, but we’ll still be fighting at melee or close-to-melee range so we can make use of our entire skill bar.
Stat Allocation
As for stat allocation, aim for30 in Strength, Dexterity, and Perception. This will significantly increase your damage
Outrider Active Skills for Throne and Liberty
This build capitalizes on the Greatsword’s CC and high burst potential to deal massive damage to targets during key windows of opportunity. Due to the long cooldowns of these Greatsword skills, we’ll be using the Crossbows to deal good sustained damage while waiting for the rest of the abilities to go back online.
Mother Nature’s Protest
When it comes toupgrading skills inThrone and Liberty, prioritize your damage skills over the rest, and attempt to get everything to at least Rare lvl. 1. For non-DPS skills,Stunning Blowtakes priority over the others as its stun duration increases with every level, giving you more time to hit fully-charged Death Blows and Guillotine Blades.
Attacks and Combos
Valiant BrawlandQuick Fireare your primary DPS skills. UseNimble Leap to reset Quickfire’s cooldownand get into range for Valiant Brawl. Use these whenever they’re off-cooldown.
Do not forget to toggle Mother Nature’s Protest. This ability will reset every time you die or enter a new instance.
There are a number of combos you can use with this build, and they mostly revolve around applying either Stun or Prone to maximize damage. These combos under the same basic principle as when using aGreatsword and Dagger build— stun the enemy, then use your hardest-hitting skills:
You usually won’t have enough time to hit a Stunned or Prone enemy with a fully-charged Death Blow or Guillotine Blade, so releasing them at half the normal charge level is fine. Fully-charging these abilities is best used when a target isn’t crowd-controlled.
PvP Build Variant
If you’re fighting other players,replace Valiant Brawl withPrecision Dash, then unlock itsBind (Precision Dash)specialization. This will give you an extra means of triggering Prone with Ascending Slash, and it’s an excellent movement/engage ability overall. For your Crossbows, free up some Specialization Points and unlockRemove CC for Selfless Diffusion.Use this whenever you get hit by enemy CC.
The rest of the build can stay the same, though you can always change some things if you find that some parts aren’t working as well as you’d like. For example, swapping Lightning Arrow for Gale Arrow in Mother Nature’s Protest’s Specializations can give you some extra burst damage with your Crossbows.
Best Greatsword and Crossbow Passive Skills in Throne and Liberty
We’ll be continuing the bruiser path by taking several defensive Greatsword passives along with those that increase our damage. We won’t be as tanky as adedicated Crusader inThrone and Liberty, but we’ll be durable enough to survive a few stray boss hits or a sustained assault from lesser monsters.
Best Gear for Greatsword and Crossbow Build in Throne and Liberty
Getting good gear is arguably the hardest part of the game. There’s a myriad of items to choose from, but not all of them will be available to you. Still,the stats are what matters most, and if you’re having trouble getting good blue or purple gear, you’re able to settle for anything that has the following stats in the meantime:
You can get pieces of the Resistance armor set just by completing the main story quest. If you want to farm for gear, you can try your luck at gettingRuthless EnforcerorGloom Guardpieces from co-op dungeons.Specter’s Abyss inThrone and Libertyhas some nice drops for players who want to grind it out.
As for purple items, keep an eye out for the following:
Greatsword and Crossbow Weapon Masteries
As a DPS class, you’ll want to spend your Weapon Mastery points on perks that further increase your damage output. It will take a while before you get enoughTraining Dew inThrone and Libertyto max out your masteries, but as you’re leveling them up,put points into the bottom trees of your weapons.
The Greatsword’sFace Offtree increases your raw damage output, Hit Chance, and Heavy Attack Chance. Meanwhile, the Crossbows’Chain Firetree gives bonus attack speed, cooldown reduction, buff duration, and off-hand weapon activation chance on top of a couple of damage buffs.
