Build Suggestion: Magic Swordsman (Do not confuse with 1-hand sword + MD Sub weapon)

The magic swordsman is a build which focuses on a balance of physical and magical damage. Due to the unique nature of this build, finding equipment with a balance of physical and magical attack is necessary. Combos used for this build must be centered around proration before damage.

Suggested Stat Focus:
- STR: 200+
- INT: 200+
- VIT: 50 {TO STAY ALIVE}
- DEX: 50 - 100
- CRIT: Remaining

This type of build is geared towards lv150+, do not attempt as a new player or without adequate game knowledge.

Suggested Core Skill Trees:
Blade: [Trigger Slash, Rampage, Meteor Breaker, Sword Tempest, Buster Blade, Berserk]
Magic: [Impact (lv7 OK), Finale, Storm, MP Charge, Power Wave, Maximizer]
Survival: [HP Boost, MP Boost]
Magic Blade: [Sword Conversion, Enchant Sword]

Due to Magic skills not requiring any particular weapon for their use, it is possible to use a sub weapon other than magic device when creating this type of character as such, the Optional skill trees are:

(Arrow Sub weapon) Shot: [Quick Draw, Decoy Shot]
(Knuckle Sub weapon) Martial: [Rush, Chariot]
(Shield Sub weapon) Shield: [Guard Strike, Force Shield, Magical Shield, Guardian]
(Shield Sub weapon) Knight: [Parry, Perfect Defense]
(Arrow Sub weapon) Hunter: [Kick, Sleep Trap, Bear Trap, Land Mine]
(Dagger Sub weapon !!warning, skill point inefficient sub weapon!!) Dagger: [Hidden Arm, Intensive Knife, Mail Breaker, Gattling Knife, Amazing Throw]
(Magic Device Sub weapon) Magic Blade: [Magic Warrior Mastery, Element Slash, Resonance]
(Magic Device Sub weapon) Priest: [Holy Light]
(Any Sub weapon) Priest: [Holy Fist]

Combo Suggestions:
1) Impact > Finale (Swift)
2) Astute > Berserk (Save) > Rampage (Consec) > Trigger Slash (Swift)
3) Magic Javalin > Magic Storm (Save) > Impact (Consec) > Sword Tempest (Swift/Smite) > Trigger Slash (Consec) [Trigger Slash only used if Sword Tempest has Smite Tag]
4) Impact > Meteor Breaker (Smite) > Trigger Slash (Consec) [Use after Combo #3 for best Effect]
5) Magic Arrows > Buster Sword (Smite) > Trigger Slash (Consec)

Pros of Build:
- Adaptability, can use magic skills in a heavy physical party or physical skills in a heavy magical party
- Substantial Burst Damage, Substantial damage over time
- Can use any sub weapon
- Able to fight at mid range (Approx 8m on average)

Cons of build:
- Requires a balance of good amount of both MATK and ATK
- Proration reliant for high burst damage or good damage over time
- Combos must be centered around either generating the right type of proration or taking advantage of it.

Notes:
*Using a magic device as sub weapon is expensive and requires several types, one of each element.
*Magic device incurs a 15% attack penalty which is reduced to 5% at most when using magic blade skills
*The shot skills of the [Arm Break] path can be taken but it is recommended to focus on other skills.
*Dagger is not recommended but your playstyle might find a way to incorporate it.
*Requires a focus in either Magic or Blade before branching over into either path for completion due to skill point requirement early on

 

Don't forget using a magic device as sub weapon give you -15% atk penalty, magic warrior mastery lower it to -5% and arrow reduce defense. imo its better to use 1h+shield

 

Will add to notes

 

This build idea is often considered, but what gear have you been using for this build and how are you finding it?

 

Sword Conversion doesn't require a sub MD
and with your stat set-up, 2h swords would be most effective with it.
(unless you really need those other sub skills)

Kick doesn't get an arrow bonus and is the same for all weapons.
Land Mine is the only trap that actually deals damage. the others have a multiplier of 0.5 matk.

Priest Skills might be an option, with Shield sub to benefit from Gloria's guard rate buff. Triel is build like this.

Dagger sub may not be good for the skills, but for the stats. Magical dagger gives 300mp and 70% addidional magic.
although the Poison Knife skill has it's multiplier based on INT.

=(^.^)=

 

Interesting note on sword conversion, I'll add that and make some adjustments.

I'll just shift kick off because as a swordsman, the proximity is necessary but it would have worked in that a combo could be

COMBO >>> Hard Hit > Kick (Swift)

Then drop traps as the boss approaches. Not an effective playstyle imp but it might be useful for those who can play with it.

Dagger, is horrible. I've tried it on knuckle, Sword and HB. The skills are a huge sink (30 skill points) do deal additional attacks which do not boost AMPR and provide weak bonus damage on normal attacks. The equipment might be ok but it's no use occupying a weapon slot like that when a shield could be equipped instead. Though that's just my opinion.

The suggested stat setup is to take advantage of critical damage. Two-hand sword can definitely benefit from it but it lacks the play diversity of 1-hand sword.

 

The new hero potum sword could be a good one to use for this build. With sub MD, you have access to maximizer, your magic skills would get the MD bonus, and the weapon stats are designed in a way that doesn't require you to also put points into DEX, so you can divert into INT instead (and sword conversion would give a big boost in matk too).

One concern here is that in order to maintain 100% crit, you would need Berserk buff + fc16 arm (with no -matk% stat) + crit add. That may take away the potential of using arm+add that can jointly boosts both atk+matk (i.e. potum witch add OR mozt arm npc version).

Also for other non-finale magic skills, you probably want to have a good amount of CSPD too, not sure where you would get that from, while maintaining 100% crit and good stats for atk/matk...

Then again, you could possibly scrap the idea of 100% crit altogether and only focus on Buster Blade for physical DPS, as that's always 100% crit anyways. That may open up more options.

As you can tell, i've been really considering how to use this sword lol... but i can't start this build project yet due to other (in-game) priorities

 

TBH, it is an interesting build but I haven't gotten very far since I'm trying out hb atm. Sword and Shield works best with it so far imo as a palladin build /w guardian. A magic tank build.

If you're using MD sub, you can play with an HP recovery tank build [Holy Light + Buster Blade] but you'd be stuck using magic skills for wide area enemies with meteor being the only finisher unless you grab binding strike?

You need the crit though because of weaken effect.

 

No dual sword magic swordsman :V boo

Welp, i call it jedi anyway lol

 

DW is too mobile for magic skills (expect impact) . The builds for the two are completely separate.

 

This is what i am using
Ether flarre> p. Ray > ss (smite ) > element slash(cons)
I still dont have access to t4 skills so this will kinda do for now.
If i have all elem md, might want to switch to enchant blade to get the damage buff.