Glaive MDPS
Glaive Build
A simple build that is easy to play, but with a few lessons to learn on timing and cooldown trading. The premise of the build is simple, poke people with Q, get spirit spear stacks, poke people with auto attacks. That is the main source of your damage, and it’s pretty simple. You will be in plate armor so you can take a hit. The more complicated part comes to the W and E spells, focused around dragging your opponents out of position, and allowing your team to focus them down with damage whilst they are out of range of the healer. Just be careful not to give an opponent a free initiation by flinging them into your backline at the wrong time.
This weapon is a major component of what is referred to as a kidnap composition. Your focus is on fishing players from the enemy team, and delivering them to your own team for damage. Just remember that your opponents have defensive skills such as shoes and resistance potions to either escape or block damage. This means you need to pay careful attention to the enemy defensives, get familiar with their cooldowns, and grab people with a full combo at a key moment when they have no option to get to safety easily.
I do not recommend playing this build without a team to communicate with. Works great with pre-stacked teams, but can be useless when the team doesn't work with you.
Lunging Strike: Stab forward with your spear dealing damage, slowing opponents and receiving a stack of “Spirit Spear” for each enemy hit (max 3 stacks). Each stack increases your auto attack damage, allowing you to deal consistently high damage even in plate armor. Try keep your stacks up and pressure opponents in range, use Lunging Strike to poke damage at opponents out of auto attack range when holding your frontline to not push too far in on your own.
Harpoon: Sends out a Harpoon in front of you, grabbing the first enemy hit and dragging them back to you. You will also root them in place when they arrive at your location, with the root duration being increased by each stack of “Spirit Spear” you have (Gained from landing Lunging Strikes). Use this spell to bait out defensives, displace opponents, or prevent low health opponents from retreating.
Fling: Grabs an opponent in front of you and flings them over your shoulder. This spell is great to be used aggressively or defensively. Can be used with “Harpoon” to pull someone back and focus them with your team, or throw someone further back with the “Fling” spell after they have pushed in. Once their defensives are down, you can harpoon them to you, then fling them back further. You can also use these abilities defensively to pull people off your healer or backline RPDS players.
Equipment abilities
Fiend Cowl
This cloth cowl can be used defensively or aggressively. Offensive uses would be counted as using it to purge an opponent’s defensive skill, such as a cleric robe or hellion jacket to go for a kill, where as a defensive use would be counted as using it to purge an enemy Bow’s damage buffs, stalker jacket lightning, or sword player’s stacks. You may also want to swap to the “Forcefield” skill available on the helmet to offer another knockback to keep displaced enemies from returning to their team
Royal Armor
With your main focus being keeping your displacing your opponent and constantly applying single target pressure with your auto attacks, wearing plate armor ensures you can hold your position as the only frontliner. The spears are however very energy hungry, and the Royal Armor is the perfect fix, restoring energy to your and your team for each enemy/ally in the radius of effect.
Mage Sandals
The Mage Sandals offer a delayed teleport that can be used defensively to retreat from danger. There is however a very interesting interaction with “Harpoon”, allowing you to blink back after throwing out the Harpoon to your target. If you time it right you will pull your opponent all the way back to you new position, taking them heavily out of place.
Thetford Cape
With your main damage being auto attacks, and Q strikes, the Thetford cape just adds additional DPS to your autos, helping you consistently keep the damage coming, with is striking opponents with additional lightning damage every 15 seconds.
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Passives
“Attack Speed”, “Aggression” and “Toughness” on the Weapon, cloth armor and plate armor pieces respectively. The attack speed boosts your attack speed when consecutively attacking, with the aggression passive boosting your damage, and toughness passive making boosting your defensives.
Beef Stew
You are in plate armor, so adding to your damage through food is the best way to go. Don’t forget that you can use T8 food at any point in the game, even if you are new, and T8 stews whilst relatively cheap compared to other foods, will grant you a massive improvement to your damage.
Resistance Potion
The resistance potion is an important defensive as a frontliner to ensure you can cover yourself from focus, and buy your healer the time to pick you up. Remember, that there can be cases to use this aggressively, to allow you to push up to the enemy and pressure them, with the increased defense protecting you whilst you do it, possibly buying your team the time they need to recover before returning for heals.
Strengths
- Great Control
- Good Persistent damage
- Good at isolating opponents
Counters
- “Forceful swing” on Quarterstaffs disabling auto attacks
- High mobility or Dive comps