Best PvP stigma build for Gladiators.

[GunGraver]

Looks exactly like my build!

[Aneyuki]

Lockdown is useless simply on the merit that it's on the same cooldown timer as both body smash and weakening severe blow.

[Scruff]

Nice build!

[Phydeaux]

Originally Posted by Aneyuki

Lockdown is useless simply on the merit that it's on the same cooldown timer as both body smash and weakening severe blow.

This I didn't know. Another bad mark for it...

[b4dmojo]

Originally Posted by Aneyuki

Lockdown is useless simply on the merit that it's on the same cooldown timer as both body smash and weakening severe blow.

I thought it was crap, now I know it is.

[Mannerless]

Just throwing something in here for us Duel Wielders, i did a little research and thinking of my own, and took some information i learned from posts and replies through out my DW learning experience to where i am now with a fairly vast knowledge of it.

Below is the link to what i believe would be an ideal PvP DW spec, not to mention it would be more then useful in PvE as well.

http://www.aionarmory.com/stigmaCalc...69:246:247:249

I have chosen to go with this build because it matches perfectly the way i actually play in game, and would complement group and solo PvP very well, since my rotations are already pretty much sorted.

Beginning with the lesser stigmas first (note every thing is max stigma level)

Advanced Duel Wielding ll - An obvious choice seeing as you literally cannot DW without this stigma, It also offers 20 attack to your offhand for the offset of damage.

Dauntless Spirit lll - More taken by force then anything else, this stigma is here to simply fit the requirements for the later stigmas, You can bet this one will come in use for escape or when you just need that little extra survival in a fight. It would also go well with Absorb scrolls.

Vengeful Strike lV - With the amount of parrying one does, even more so at later levels, this stigma is almost always up for use. Though it does have its 30 second cooldown, it packs a rather hard hit and can be used in rapid succession with other abilities. This stigma is also a prerequisite for later stigmas.

Unwavering Devotion - This stigma here offers us really above anything else, the most survivability and is used as the general nyerk you skill for the other classes fighting against us. The huge boost of resistance (80%) against all the things that just destroy us makes us pretty near god for a minut giving us more then just an edge to destroy Assassins, other Gladiators, Sorcerers and Chanters. Im sure there is even more use to this stigma but i only mentioned a few.

Improved Stamina - I cant even begin to tell you how many times this stigma has changed the side of battle, let alone saved me completely. I find this stigma to just be awesome all around, you receive some very nice healing and 100 parry for a full minut, further increasing the use of Vengeful Strike and Technical Counter within the time that it is up, and it can then be used a minut after the buff wears off. Its great to pop this as a pot for when grinding decreasing downtime dramatically, its excellent to use this prior to a fight to further boost your life by 20% and already begin with the 100 extra parry, and of course its just great to use this with a pot when you just need to get the hell away from someone.

Greater Stigmas (All stigmas listed below are purchased using Abyss Points and cannot be obtained any other way)

Technical Counter - An excellent stigma useable after a successful parry, can be used with Vengeful Strike as well. This stigma now adds for us Duel Wielders a second way to stumble an opponent, the first of course being Wrathful Strike + Luck. It hurts, has the same cooldown and Vengeful Strike and is an overall extra ability to our short catalogue of skills. Plain and simply great for interrupting melee classes who have been unfortunate enough to make you parry.

Sharp Strike - This stigma here is just great, it has high damage (much higher then what the site mentions) and its an INSTANT cast, no more hoping to god someone decides to stand still for 2 seconds or 1.7 seconds for you to smash em a big one. It has a decent cooldown of 16 seconds and perhaps costs a little more mana then most of our skills but its really not a big deal to out MP anyway. Yet another skill we can add to our now growing tiny skill catalogue.

Severing Strike - Finally the big gun, Yet another INSTANT cast hard hitter (higher damage then what website states) and following chain skill from Sharp Strike. It has a little bit of a mana expenditure as well, but again, the cooldown will make sure that we wont run out of mana too quickly anyway. Its a nice ability following an already decent skill.

And now for the rotations and explanations

For pvp, the general rule for the Duel Wilder is needing to have a lot of attack speed, so make sure at least one of your weapons has 15% attack speed minimum on it.

With skils like Stamina Recovery helping you bump up a few extra ticks of life, and Improved Stamina assisting how i mentioned it above, along with the skill that makes you parry 12 times (hehe forgot the name) you can have quite enough survivability to destroy a few opponents if you do your thing correctly. And we havent even mentioned Dauntless Spirit and Unwavering Devotion with all its greatness mixed with the above mentioned skills. You can turn your attacker into nothing more then a massus.

As a general rule of Duel Wielding, you will be weaving, and so remember to use an auto attack in between every single ability, excluding the ones that proc on parry and knock downs.

Begin with your Sharp Strike - Severing Blow chain to already add heat to the beginning of the fight and follow through with your Ferocious Strike - Wrathful Strike combo, though keeping in mind to use Rupture instead of Wrathful Strike if your opponent is trying to run away or over all gather distance from you, because the still animation of Wrathful Strike will cause you to remain still for 2 seconds while it casts from beginning to end.

At this point you will have done a nice burst of dps, considering all the speedy auto attacks in between your abilities and now your enemy is either on his back on the floor or still fighting with you, it is time to decide if you need to use some of your defensive abilities or continue raging through them.

Decide the best kinds of defensive abilities to use, usually its Unwavering Devotion + Dauntless Spirit and Improved Stamina, or its Stamina Recovery + Dauntless Spirit + the one that makes you parry.

If your opponent is now down to 50-45% of their total life, its time to ue Arial Lockdown - Body Smash - Auto Attack - Crashing Blow, in that order exactly. This will destroy them, or at the very least bring them to such low health that you would just finish them off with your AA's.

Remember not everything will die as fast as mentioned above, and no, things wont always be perfect for you, but keep in mind most of your skills will have now become useable again since the cooldown has ended, and you can generally do it again and again.

Dont forget to use your cleaves if your beginning the fight or if your opponent is running away and just a little too far out of range, generally a Force Cleave will allow you to catch right back up to them.

It is imperative to carry and use your bow, my swap weapon key is just Z, and i use the bow every single time an enemy runs off too far for me to use my abilities or if Force Cleave fails to slow them down. Dont forget that your bow does indeed do high damage even if it is only AA's. I slotted my bow with full +Attack Manastones to maximize the damage, since my crit is already high enough even in bow mode.

Thank you for reading though this, sure hope i helped some Duel Weiders out with this information.
This is personally what i would do and use, and remember that i learned my mindset from built up knowledge from other players, so no i am not claiming that i am an ultra god and that i did it all my self from scratch.

I will be posting this article in a new thread to bring it to even more eyes.

[Mihe]

Aion Armory - Gladiator Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

last 2 slots are situational. atm i have shattering wave/improved stamina since i do lot more pve than pvp on our server, though in the end i might just keep that stigma set up for abyss pvp (unless evasion stacking scouts pop up..) with this you basically have 2nd highest ground burst dmg and 2nd/3rd highest sustained damage. eq wave/howl/swb would be my other options, however eq wave is pretty much useless in the air as you cannot jump cancel the animation in the air and howl is only effective if you can hit more than one person. swb would add another skill which would allow us to skill spam easily with an aspd weapon (you shouldnt really use your aoe chain outside of aerial lockdown/ground aoeing)

if it's dredgion, would have sdb+eq wave+ud. the prereqs are retarded but it can be very effective if you are good at positioning and using your aoes (mainly sdb) at the right time. has never been interrupted for me either. however, im too lazy to switch stigma slots every time i want to do dred, so eh.

precision cut has never been interrupted for me. maybe gladiators have stupid high concentration or it's just like that. fyi the animation for it is long so it takes almost 3 seconds (including cast time) for you to be able to do anything after you use it, and that is with an attack speed weapon. there are better options for burst dps, especially on the ground. the only thing i'd see it useful for is a. opening with it as a cc breaker or b. for pve. maybe if running 2m doesn't cancel it, it'd be a good finisher.

[calle]

Been thinking it over and as much as i love precision cut its a bit funky to use atm with the cast time plus at end game it wont scale at all with attack speed.
I'm thinking something like: Aion Armory - Gladiator Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

Assult Posture for big burst with the all of the classic stigmas. Im thinking to maybe even drop crippling cut or maybe ankle snare for earthquake wave aoe slow or some other utility ability.
However cripling cut and drainingblow works wonders with assutl posture activated though.

[arthorius]

I was thinking of a PA, I'm only lvl 36 atm so I know squat about most of the stigmas, but I think this build looks good. Maybe if the earthquake wave animation isn't too slow and if you have +atk speed you could open with EW then proceed to beat the crap out of the slowed target. Anyone know if earthquake wave shares a cooldown with another skill? I am also hoping that the Howl animation is fast. then u can howl-EW -> destroy

Any comments on this?

Aion Armory - Gladiator Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

[Delolith]

Originally Posted by arthorius

I was thinking of a PA, I'm only lvl 36 atm so I know squat about most of the stigmas, but I think this build looks good. Maybe if the earthquake wave animation isn't too slow and if you have +atk speed you could open with EW then proceed to beat the crap out of the slowed target. Anyone know if earthquake wave shares a cooldown with another skill? I am also hoping that the Howl animation is fast. then u can howl-EW -> destroy

Any comments on this?

Aion Armory - Gladiator Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

Bad thing is EW has low basal damage and it can be pot-cured + it is on a long cooldown. In theory is a good skill...but in practise I do not think. Prefer Force Cleave I for snaring people from range and Ankle Snare for root.

[Mihe]

Originally Posted by Delolith

Bad thing is EW has low basal damage and it can be pot-cured + it is on a long cooldown. In theory is a good skill...but in practise I do not think. Prefer Force Cleave I for snaring people from range and Ankle Snare for root.

554-569 on skill description is decent damage (using in game dmg). about the same as body damage. it is also a 100% snare (unless resisted) unlike force cleave. only bad thing is that you have to jump cancel if you want it to be useful.

[Delolith]

Originally Posted by Mihe

554-569 on skill description is decent damage (using in game dmg). about the same as body damage. it is also a 100% snare (unless resisted) unlike force cleave. only bad thing is that you have to jump cancel if you want it to be useful.

Damn that stigma calculator is confusing for having some stigmas with basic damage. Even though..it can still be cured and 2 mins cooldown. I would not sacrifice a stigma for it.

[Kunkka]

Aion Armory - Gladiator Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

I have this right now with dual wield, gonna try precision cut when I get a good 2h, but im not sure if im gonna stay with it, cast time seems pretty long, dunno if damage/time ratio is good. Also a lot of the top korean gladiators use Fear, I guess an aoe reduce of 300 attack power for 15 sec in a fight is useful, I'll try that later too. Also some dont even use Slaughter, I dont know if the difference with aion strenght is that great since aion strenght gives 15% att power + additional damage to player, I'd need to calculate that as well

[Gurni]

Let me just say Thanks for this thread, deciding what Stigmas to use is prolly the most important thing you have to do, and this helps a ton.
I agree with Lockdown being close to useless, it was the biggest disappointment in earlier levels.

[TerrorIG]

tbh used precision cut for a few levels.

It is very situational, and is inclined to require you to gamble alot on it.

Why i say that? if it doesnt crit, which it doesnt alot even on 440 crit. It does about 1.2k damage.

Now it does have a cooldown of 30 seconds, but in practice CD ranges from 2min to 3min. Why you say that?

It is extremely hard to get PC off unless ankle snared or aerial.

In terms of normal damaged i popped assault and crit mobs for around 2.4-2.8k on skills such as Ferocious. Sp no it is not about 100 damage. You will also find the accuracy debuff to be marginal, and later on to be countered by more abyss gear which contains +accuracy.

In terms of dredgion and such, i find myself often downing players really quickly. So give it a shot.