Dragon Nest PVE-PVP Hybrid Gladiator Build Guide

Ever wondered how other Dragon Nest SEA players built their characters? How about why they build their characters that way? Then look no further, as we’ll (slowly) show you various different builds people have used, ranging from safe builds to OMGWTFBBQ builds. These builds are not meant to be taken as the best builds out there, but rather what a single average player found to be working for him or her which you may find adaptable to your style or you may build upon.

Today’s build: PVE-PVP Hybrid Gladiator contributed by Fauster from Springwood

A little info about myself. Fauster, gladiator from Springwood of Dragon Nest SEA. I’ve been playing since OBT (24 cap), played through every cap there is and had been through numerous resets.

Swordmasters have been around ever since the birth of Dragon Nest. Their builds are pretty straightforward, probably one of the easiest to build, but of course variations still exist. While I will be showing you my skill build for 70 cap, this is mostly preferential and probably isn’t the most efficient skill build for a gladiator. After all, if a skill build does not match your play style, you won’t be able to maximize it’s potential. Btw, Fauster’s build is PVE-oriented, but is still able to kick some asses in PVP.

For the rest of this entry, I will be discussing how I came up with the skill build.

Warrior Tree

The warrior tree does not contribute to the gladiator’s DPS much but since having 45 sp in this tree is a prerequisite to Infinity Edge, we might as well make good use of it.

Rising slash : getting it to level 6 not only increases the dmg significantly, it also adds an extra blow which is 25% more dmg. This skill is also useful in pvp.

Circle Break : may get lvl 1 or 6, this skill has great SA breaking capabilities and fair AOE damage.

Sweeping kick : totally optional if going PVE, I just somehow got used to having it and it’s pretty handy to clear leftover mobs. May skip this skill.

Mental Mastery and Mental Training : In 60 cap, I survived with both at level 1. In the rare that I’m out of mana, I always have a gauntlet (Vigor III) with me so didn’t really bother me. I decided to put some sp on them this 70 cap since I also do ladder for ladder points (plates and free equips!)

Relieve : I set it at 4, just to get the 10 second reduction in it’s cooldown. Removing 2 debuffs at a time is more than enough. This skill can also be used as aerial recovery when aerial evasion is on cd.

Skills to max : Tumble, Dash, Aerial Evasion, Physical Mastery

These skills contribute to my survivability, so I just maxed them.

Sword Master Tree

This tree is where the gladiator’s high damaging skills are, I simply leveled each skill up to it’s magic number to maximize sp usage.

Magic numbers : 6, 11, 16, 21

Skills at magic numbers : Triple slash, Line Drive, Rage

Skills almost at magic numbers : Hacking Stance, Eclipse

Might as well include my planned skill accessories which complements my skill build: Necklace (Evasion Slash), Earring (Hacking Stance), Ring1 (Eclipse), Ring2 (Finish Attack)

Hacking Stance : this is probably the gladiator’s best damaging skill, at level 16(magic number due to skill accessory), this skill can dish out 205% + 7115 per hit. Hacking stance has a total hit count of 44, that’s 9020% + 313060 every 25 seconds.

Eclipse : while eclipse does not exactly deal a huge amount of damage compared to other skills, it is pretty handy. It’s execution is instant. I use this skill together with evasion slash when I need to focus on dodging while poking the enemy. With skill accessory, eclipse can reach the magic number and deal a fair amount of damage for the amount of sp it’s consumed.

Infinity Edge : I probably would have skipped this skill if it wasn’t a prerequisite to gladiator skills. But since it’s required, might as well set it to level 2, that 1 SP adds almost 600% damage to it, not bad for 1 SP.

Dash Slash and Dash Combo : These skills have very short cooldown and provide great opening. Level 1 is enough for me, I’ve seen some skill builds where they level these 2 skills to a fairly high number though. As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this post, skill builds must match your play style to maximize it’s potential. If you like to dash around a lot even when you are near the enemy, you might wanna consider leveling these 2 skills higher.

Brave : I leveled it to 6 just to get the increase in patk from 25% to 30%. The increase in duration per SP is not worth it for me.

Provoking Slam : The debuff stopped at 50% on level 8. There’s no point to further level it.

Aerial Slash : This skill can prolong your stay in the air, in case you jumped too early to dodge some monster attack. It can also be used right after rising slash to perform a combo attack.

Parry : Block enemies’ attack by chance, can’t really count on it as it’s by chance but it’s a prerequisite to hacking stance.

Parrying Stance : This skill becomes less and less useful as caps increase, more and more skills becomes unblockable, but it’s still useful if you can identify which skills can be blocked.

Counter Slash : I used to level this back in 40 cap, where almost all skills are blockable. Used in conjunction with parrying stance this skill does wonders at 0 cooldown. I used to spam it standing on the poison floor at Medusa stage. I decided to drop it around 50 cap.

Counter Exile : Get it if you’re going for PVP, this gives you an additional aerial recovery skill.

Moonlight Splitter : can skip this. Similar to sweeping kick, I just got used to having this. Handy for clearing mobs out of reach, also pretty useful in pvp, enemy who get hit by this skill are in a staggered state for a certain period of time.

Gladiator Tree

Evasion slash : The cooldown of this skill decreases at every level. When leveled to 6 and with a skill accessory, this skill will have a cooldown of 7 seconds. I consider this skill to be one of gladiator’s top dps skills. This damage of this skill is just too good to be used only for dodging.

Finish Attack : Signature move of the gladiator. Do we even need an explanation for this? Max it.

Get all the EX skills, they increase the swordmaster skills by 30%. Some are free, some cost 1 sp, definitely worth it.

Physical mastery, increases your overall damage by 10% for just 1 sp.

And that concludes my gladiator’s skill build, what’s yours? Any comments are welcome.