Wand / Dagger PvP Build Guide

Last Updated:October 13, 2024|Change Log

Welcome to the Wand/Dagger PvP build guide! The Wand / Dagger weapon combination is primarily a support build that revolves around mixing ranged and melee playstyles to ensure you can be anywhere on the battlefield.

Unlike a more traditional Support or DPS build, you need to keep close watch on both allies and enemies alike to make the best use of your Swift Healing, Cursed Nightmare, Shadow Escape, Fountain of Life and Blessed Barrier abilities. Knowing when and where to use these skills for maximum value makes the difference between a good support and a great one.

Wand / Dagger PvP Build

If you're interested in PvE, check out our Wand / Dagger PvE Build Guide!

Pros

Has Stealth
Hybrid DPS
High AoE DPS
High Crit Healing

Cons

Low Mobility
Weak to Stun
High Mana Cost

Skill Builds

AoE Bomber

Pure Healer

Small Scale PvP

The goal for this build is to sleep as many people as each fight allows and deal as much AOE damage as possible. When players start getting more geared, this playstyle falls off.

Active Skills

The block we use is Block Blade. The stealth gained on a rolling perfect block is invaluable, and you should be rolling often to upkeep Lequirus's Thorny Edge passive.

DPS Skills

Touch of Despair, Decaying Touch and Curse Explosion are your primary AOE damage skills.

Utility Skills

Karmic Haze is your go to for spreading your Curses.
Phantom Smokescreen is your survival tool after you engage, ensuring you Evade most skills in the game.
Shadow Strike is used to apply Silence and Bind, as well as proc your Shadow Walker passive.
Camouflage Cloak is your primary tool for engaging in fights, but can also be used to save yourself from a bad situation.
Cursed Nightmare is used in combination with Karmic Haze and your other damaging Curse skills to set up your bombs using Curse Explosion.
Enchanting Time and Blessed Barrier are used to buff yourself before dumping your Curses for increased DOT.

Support Skills

Swift Healing and Clay's Salvation are your only source of self sustain.

Passive Skills

Assassin's Instincts, Wrathful Edge and Full of Corruption are all passives used to boost your damage.
Assassination Stance is used in combination with Phantom Smokescreen to have stealth up much more often.
Shadow Walker is a massive survival tool that you need to keep active at all times.
Assassin's Step gives us quite a lot of mobility, which is great for your playstyle.
Wraith's Beckon increases the duration of all Curses, making it a must have.
Devotion and Emptiness helps boost our healing when we need to use it.

The goal for this build is to be a utility machine, providing Healing, Shields, Increased Defenses, and the ability to stop enemy engagements. Best played in ZvZ combat with a full party.

Active Skills

The block we use is Block Blade. The stealth gained on a rolling perfect block is invaluable, and you should be rolling often to upkeep Lequirus's Thorny Edge passive.

DPS Skills

Touch of Despair and Corrupted Magic Circle are your only sources of damage in this playstyle, and are more used to stack Full of Corruption to increase your Healing and Shields.

Utility Skills

Karmic Haze and Cursed Nightmare are your primary tool to either engage an enemy group or help your group to disengage.
Camouflage Cloak and Phantom Smokescreen are used to get you out of tough situations. Camouflage Cloak should also be used when engaging fights with your AOE sleep combo.
Shadow Strike is a valuable mobility skill that Roots and Silences a target. Use it to peel for your party or to get a quick engagement with the enemy and return with Shadow Escape. It also procs Shadow Walker, giving you even more defenses.

Support Skills

Swift Healing, Clay's Salvation, and Fountain of Life are your primary sources of Healing, and also stack the passive Selfless Soul.
Invincile Wall and Blessed Barrier are fantastic damage mitigation tools and should be used before you engage when possible. Also, consider saving Blessed Barrier for when one of your party members gets in a sticky situation.

Passive Skills

Selfless Soul, Full of Corruption, Devotion and Emptiness and Assassin's Instincts are all skills used to increase the power of your Healing and Shields.
Shadow Walker and Assassination Stance are key survival tools for this build.
Assassin's Step keeps you mobile throughout the fight.
Wraith's Beckon increases the duration of all your Curses, but we mostly take it to extend the duration of Cursed Nightmare.

Alternatives

Consider replacing Corrupted Magic Circle with Enchanting Time to get extra Healing and Shield strength from the increased Skill Damage Boost. Take off Range ▲ to fit in the Enchanting Time skill specialization.

The goal for this build is to play as a hybrid support/DPS with the ability to engage, Heal, Shield, or assassinate targets. You MUST play around your team as getting caught usually means death.

Active Skills

The block we use is Block Blade. The stealth gained on a rolling perfect block is invaluable, and you should be rolling often to upkeep Lequirus's Thorny Edge passive.

DPS Skills

Cleaving Moonlight and Thunderclouds Bombing are our primary burst tools, use them while the enemy is under the effect of Ankle Strike.

Utility Skills

We take Touch of Despair mostly to apply the 10% increased Base Damage taken, although it also applies a small DOT.
Lightning Infusion is used to massively increase the damage of Thunderclouds Bombing and also apply Endurance Reduction to the enemy.
Camouflage Cloak allows us to stealth engage fights and escape sticky situations.
Cursed Nightmare is a great tool for completely shutting down a member of the enemy team, and should be used to stop someone engaging your backline so you can kill the other two members of his team.
We take Shadow Strike to help reposition in fights while applying Silence and Root to enemy players. It also serves to proc our Shadow Walker passive.

Support Skills

Invincile Wall and Blessed Barrier are and excellent way to mitigate damage, and should be used to protect allies that are dove on.
Fountain of Life and Swift Healing are the healing skills utilized to keep ourselves and our allies topped up.

Passive Skills

Shadow Walker is invaluable to increase survivability and should be kept active at all times.
Assassin's Instincts, Noble Revival, Saint's Oath, Selfless Soul and Devotion and Emptiness are all used to increase our Healing capabilities as we fill the support role in arena.
Wraith's Beckon is mostly taken to extend the duration of our Cursed Nightmare.
We take Wrathful Edge to increase our burst potential when you need to dive onto targets.

Skill Prioritization

Use Quality Marind Ore to craft Quality Active Skill Growth Book and Quality Passive Skill Growth Book.
Use Rare Marind Ore to craft Rare Active Skill Growth Book and Rare Passive Skill Growth Book.
Prioritize getting all these skills to blue first before getting them to purple. These are universal skills you will always use. Upgrade the rest of your skills as you play the game.

PvP Gameplay and Skill Rotation

AoE Bomber

Healing

Small Scale PvP

General AoE

Engage with Camouflage Cloak
Cursed Nightmare
Touch of Despair
Decaying Touch
Karmic Haze
Curse Explosion

he main goal of this DPS rotation is to spread as many of your Curses over as many targets as possible. Ideally, you would stack Touch of Despair 4 times on the enemy before using Karmic Haze. However, this takes quite a bit of time, and people are more likely to run away before you have a chance to spread them with Karmic Haze.

With that in mind, aim to have at least two stacks of Touch of Despair on your target. This can be made easy with the Curse specialization.

Fast AoE Burst Rotation

Engage with Camouflage Cloak
Touch of Despair
Decaying Touch
Karmic Haze
Curse Explosion

This combo is for shorter burst windows. You lose the guaranteed crit from Cursed Nightmare but gain the benefit of not having to wait for the target to fall asleep, so it's good to use in a pinch.

Fast Sleep

Engage with Camouflage Cloak
Cursed Nightmare
Karmic Haze

This is a very simple combo. Make sure your location is safe before you cast and you know where to safely reposition afterward.
Always target a Wand / Longbow or SnS user with Cursed Nightmare, because they don't usually stack Evasions, so it's more likely your Sleep and Karmic Haze would not miss on them.
After you cast Cursed Nightmare on a target, you must use Karmic Haze on that same target to spread Sleep.
- Note: The tooltip for Karmic Haze is incorrect and you can spread any DoT or Sleep to as many targets within skill's AoE radius.

These combos are best used while the enemy is distracted. You are not that durable and any amount of focusing by the enemy party can easily shut you down. Make use of Camouflage Cloak when possible for the safest engage.

Blessed Barrier
Invincile Wall
Fountain of Life
Clay's Salvation
[Swift Healing

This isn’t a rotation as much as it is a use order of skills to use keep you and your party at full Health.

You may not have all these skills equipped depending on your party role. However, use the order of skills to help you determine how much healing you can provide. This ensures you use the right ability for the right situation to manage resources.

When someone is at death's door, use this skillset from top to bottom (except for Vampiric Contract as it's a passive) to fully heal anyone in the game. Lastly, with tools like Fountain of Life and Clay's Salvation you are also more than capable of healing your entire party as well.

Engage/Dive

Lightning Infusion
Shadow Strike
Ankle Strike
Cleaving Moonlight
Lightning Infusion
Thunderclouds Bombing

This is your only burst damage rotation. It's best used on mages due to the Silence from Shadow Strike. Avoid using this on Bow users as Lightning Infusion repeatedly procs the passive Devoted Shield.

The rest of your gameplay revolves around using Cursed Nightmare on problematic targets like Greatsword users while providing our team with healing and shields when necessary. See the Healing tab for more info.

Tips

In small and large scale PvP, your focus is keeping those around you alive while looking for opportunities to get mass amounts of damage on large groups with your skills.

Most of your time should be spent with a Dagger in your main hand to make use of the Master of Evasion Mastery.
On pushes, make sure to Dodge Roll to gain the Base Damage effect from Lequirus's Thorny Edge, then pre-cast Invincile Wall to shield your team.
After engaging with Camouflage Cloak, make use of Block Blade's Roll to proc Shadow Walker. Also, consider using Phantom Smokescreen after engageing to keep yourself safe while using your other Healing Cooldowns.
When not engaging, stay near your party to best make use of Invincile Wall and Clay's Salvation.
Consider Shadow Escape as both an offensive and defensive tool. Use it to save a teammate being dove on or as an escape to reposition yourself while upkeeping Shadow Walker.

Stat Priorities

Use the following stat priority when following the Wand / Dagger PvP Build.

Primary Stat
- Perception and Strength
Secondary Stat
- Wisdom and Dexterity

You have 49 Stat Points you can freely allocate to any of the 4 primary Stats. Once you put 20 points into an individual Stat, it takes 2 points to increase the Stat by 1. I advise not putting more than 20 points unless absolutely necessary.

You get bonuses for every 10 Stat Points you invest from 30 to 60. You invest your points based on acquiring these bonuses.

Consider Stat Points as a way to fine-tune your secondary stats, such as Attack Speed, Crit Chance, Evasion, HP, Hit Rate, and even CC Chance.

Early Game Gear

Our Stats are limited with Green Gear, so aim for 30 Strength and 30 Perception. The extra stats you focus on include Hit Chance and Melee Evasion to improve our PvP effectiveness. The focus on these two stats in particular is to increase your HP and Hit Chance respectively.

Mid Game Gear

After moving to Blue Gear, you get access to more Stat Points as well as more Evasion and Hit Chance. The stats you aim for here is 30 Strength, 30 Dexterity, 19 Wisdom and 30 Perception. The points towards Dexterity increase Crit Chance as well as bump all of your Evasion stats.

Late Game Gear

The end goal for our builds is to reach the 60 Strength milestone in order to stack as much Health as possible.

PvP Gear Progression

Acquiring Gear pieces and upgrading them is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. If you enjoy both PvE and PvP content, just use these sets for PvE as well.

If you're interested in PvE Gear Progression, check out our Wand / Dagger PvE Build Guide!

Early Game

Mid Game
Evasion Blue Gear

End Game
Ranged/Magic Evasion

End Game
Melee Evasion

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear

This gear set is designed to get you to important stat breakpoints and ensure you have enough Health, Hit, and Evasion to be effective in fights. This is the gear set you should look to build first while you slowly collect blue/purple gear for the late game.

In the early game, Wand Dagger is one of the few weapon combinations that can stack all three types of Evasion without sacrificing stats in other areas. With the help of Shadow Walker and Phantom Smokescreen to evade Ranged and Magic projectiles we can put most of our gearing focus into Melee Evasion. While under the effects of Shadow Walker your Ranged Evasion and Magic Evasion reach over 1000. In combination with Phantom Smokescreen this is fine for the early game.

Gear Sources

Elite Resistance Knife
- Sharp Blades that Cut Through Darkness
- Evil Eye in Manawastes
Elite Resistance Magic Scepter
- Mystical Wands
- Imp Lancer in Manawastes
Robert's Focus Bracelet
- Complete Temple of Sylaveth Exploration Codex.
Robert's Focus Ring
- Story Quest Reward
- Use Lethal Fortune Ring if you chose a different Story Quest Reward.

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Ranged/Magic Evasion

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Melee Evasion

For mid-game, you are slowly phasing out your green gear for blues, even replacing some of the story blues with better options. Keep in mind that an item with traits is better than an untraited item in most cases. Don't be afraid to hold on to your greens if you can't afford traiting your blues.

The difference between these two builds largely comes down to your server meta and preferred playstyle. If you find an abundance of melee players in your fights then the Melee Evasion build just makes sense. Regardless of build you need to maintain good positioning to stay alive in most content. When using the Ranged/Magic Evasion build be more mindful of melee players as they will kill you in one combo. Keep in mind that Blue Gear is the last time you can stack enough Melee Evasion for it to actually make a difference in your survivability. The amount of Hit that Greatsword can get after this point greatly reduces the effectiveness of any evasion you can build in the end game.

Ranged Magic Evasion Sources

Lithograph Book completion
- Moonlight Grace Leather Boots
  - Power that Pushes Through
  - Cave of Destruction, Specter's Abyss
  - Sluggish Zombie in Shattered Temple
- Elite Tracker's Belt
  - Sources of Abdominal Strength!
  - Evil Eye in Manawastes
- Elite Sharpshooter's Cloak
  - Cloaks that Wield Victory
  - Gallu Archer in Shattered Temple
Deadly Barrier Chain Gaiters
- Tyrant's Isle
Blessings of Mother Nature Cloth Gloves
- Temple of Slaughter, Cave of Desperation
Robert's Focus Bracelet
- Complete Temple of Sylaveth Exploration Codex.

Melee Evasion Sources

Lithograph Book completion
- Elite Resistance Visor
  - Overhead Protection
  - Sandworm in Sandworm Lair
  - Orc Brawler in Fonos Basin
Impure Witch's Linen Pants
- Ant's Nest (Open ~1 week after launch) (Acid Ant)
- Can use Elite Resistance Leather Pants as a replacement.
- Can use Deadly Barrier Chain Gaiters as a replacement.
Elite Assassin's Cloak
- Mitran in Purelight Hill
- Contaminated Mitran in Purelight Hill
Elite Retainer's Belt
- Grayclaw Sentry in Grayclaw Forest
- Gray Lycan Sentry in Grayclaw Forest
- Shade Wizard in Temple of Sylaveth
Reflection Alter Ego Secret Art Armor
- Cave of Destruction
Reflection Breakthrough Leather Boots
- Cursed Wasteland
Blessings of Mother Nature Cloth Gloves
- Temple of Slaughter, Cave of Desperation

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear

For end-game, this gear takes a LONG time to get. Don't be discouraged by this though, just take your time. The goal is to stack as much Ranged Evasion and Magic Evasion as possible while reaching the 60 Perception breakpoint, making you incredibly durable to the majority of DPS builds.

When combined with Shadow Walker, you reach 2100 Ranged Evasion and 2100 Magic Evasion.

Even without the aid of Shadow Walker the build can maintain relative safety by using Phantom Smokescreen to evade key melee skills you otherwise can't deal with such as Chain Hook and Devastating Smash alongside near-immunity to Ranged and Magic projectiles.

Note that the difference between Insightful Ring of Dimension and Eternal Ring of Dimension come down to preference. Both rings allow you to hit your important Stat breakpoints while offering their own special benefit to the build.

If you value the Movespeed provided by Eternal Ring of Dimension over the increased Range from Insightful Ring of Dimension it is a completely viable alternative.

When transitioning to this build from your mid game build be mindful of your Hit. Items like Lequirus's Thorny Edge, Hermit's Shroud and Insightful Ring of Dimension provide amazing benefits to the build but sacrifice the Hit from Elite Resistance Knife, Elite Sharpshooter's Cloak and Crude Wind Band.

Weapon Sources

Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Cave of Destruction
Excavator's Mysterious Scepter
- Excavator-9
Darkslayer Daggers
- Demonhoof Tracker and Demonhoof Head Shaman in Syleus's Abyss F5-F6

Armor Sources

Hermit's Shroud
- Cloak that Protected a Hero Lithograph Book entry
Special Resistance Ancient Dragon Pants
- Precious Blessing Pouch
- Even As the Shadow in the Fog Sprays Blood Lithograph Book entry.
Special Resistance Hawk Hood
- Precious Blessing Pouch
- Crown Blessed by Moonlight Lithograph Book entry.
- Black Boar in Purelight Hill.
Special Resistance Hawk Gloves
- Precious Blessing Pouch
- Blessed Moonlight Touch Lithograph Book entry.
- Gallu Archer in Shattered Temple.

Accessory Sources

Insightful Ring of Dimension
- Craft Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest using Dimensional Essence: Salvation.
- You need 10 Tokens from each Co-Op Dungeon to craft.
Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Cave of Destruction
Ancient Saurodoma Bracers
- Tyrant's Isle
Abyss Conqueror's Necklace
- Craft Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss
Tycan's Bloodlust Belt
- Aridus
Unshakeable Gold Ring
- Demonhoof Tracker and Demonhoof Head Shaman in Syleus's Abyss F5-F6

Alternatives

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear

Both of the above builds are viable placeholders while you work towards the harder-to-aqcuire items from the end game build. The main difference between the two is about +2k Health, -250 Hit, -12% Buff Duration, and +100 Heavy Attack Chance for the Darkslayer Daggers. The choice is entirely preference, so weigh the options carefully and pick what works best for your server.

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear

For end-game, this gear takes a LONG time to get. Don't be discouraged by this though, just take your time. The goal is to stack as much Melee Evasion as possible for the sole purpose of being effective in small scale content such as Arena and Dominion Events. When combined with Master of Evasion you reach 1900 Melee Evasion. This gear set also provides 1500+ Ranged Evasion when combined with Shadow Walker. While this isn't enough Evasion to feel comfortable against ranged playes, it will provide some cusion to your gameplay.

Even without the aid of Shadow Walker the build can maintain relative safety by using Phantom Smokescreen to evade key melee skills such as Chain Hook and Devastating Smash alongside near-immunity to Ranged and Magic projectiles.

When transitioning to this build from your mid game build be mindful of your Hit. Items like Darkslayer Daggers and Insightful Ring of Dimension provide amazing benefits to the build but sacrifice the Hit from Elite Resistance Knife and Crude Wind Band.

Weapon Sources

Lequirus's Coveted Tome
- Cave of Destruction
Darkslayer Daggers
- Demonhoof Tracker and Demonhoof Head Shaman in Syleus's Abyss F5-F6

Armor Sources

Nightslayer's Mantle
- Precious Blessing Pouch
- Mitran and Contaminated Mitran in Purelight Hill.
Helm of the Field General
- Chernobog
Heroic Armor of the Resistance
- Adventure Codex
- Unfaltering Protection Lithograph Book entry.
- Gallu Archer in Shattered Temple.
Gauntlets of the Field General
- Aridus
Resolute Crusader Greaves
- Minezerok
- Avolos Guardian in Sanctum of Desire
Ebon Roar Sabatons
- Tyrant's Isle

Accessory Sources

Insightful Ring of Dimension
- Craft Precious Epic Accessory Selection Chest using Dimensional Essence: Salvation.
- You need 10 Tokens from each Co-Op Dungeon to craft.
Beast King's Gilded Bracers
- Cave of Destruction
Collar of Decimation
- Marienne's Necklace Collection Lithograph Book entry.
- Kowazan
Unshakeable Gold Ring
- Demonhoof Tracker and Demonhoof Head Shaman in Syleus's Abyss F5-F6
Belt of Combat Prowess
- Grayclaw Sentry and Gray Lycan Sentry in Grayclaw Forest.
- Shade Wizard in Shadowed Crypt.

Alternatives

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear
Solo Self Found

Wand / Dagger PvP Build Gear
Lequirus Daggers

The Solo Self Found build aims to ease the pain of acquiring gear locked behind world boss drops while still maintaining it's identity. The main loss is the need to drop two set Field General's Pride. Another consideration to be made is going for Clasp of the Conqueror over Collar of Decimation as it requires no RNG to obtain and meets the same Stat breakpoints required.

The Lequirus's Thorny Edge variant of the build offers the same Stat breakpoints but sacrifices Max Health in favor of more Base Damage and higher Crit Rate. You also get access to more Wisdom to improve your Cooldown Speed and Mana Regen. Both the Lequirus's Thorny Edge variant and the Darkslayer Daggers variant are viable as a main build. The choice comes down to your preference.

Gear Sources

Lequirus's Thorny Edge
- Cave of Destruction
Visor of the Resistance
- Overhead Protection
- Orc Brawler
Ascended Guardian Gloves
- Butcher's Canyon
Clasp of the Conqueror
- Craft Precious Epic Equipment Chest: Abyss

Guardians

Guardians are special transformations that add offensive or defensive buffs or attacks to your character for 30 seconds. These are the recommended Guardians for the Wand / Dagger PvP Build.

For PvP, use Lady Knight Kamarshea as your primary Guardian of choice. Not only does it provide a massive HP shield based on your max mana, it also gives you CDR for all of your abilities as long as the shield lasts. This is invaluable when you need to keep yourself alive as long as possible for big pushes in large scale fights.
An alternative Guardian you can use is Pale Nemesis Hartach. The idea behind this choice is to use Guardian when you stealth into their backline using Camouflage Cloak, get a quick kill, and use the Guardian's ability to re-stealth. Then, you can either look for another kill or leave back to the safety of your group.

Summary

The Wand / Dagger PvP Build is a Support build that mixes melee and ranged play-styles.
Combine a mixture of survivability and damage with skills such as Thunderclouds Bombing and Swift Healing to both deal damage and keep people alive.
Play next to your tank so it's easier to keep him alive.
Position yourself safely and make use of ranged AoE such as Corrupted Magic Circle and Karmic Haze combined with Touch of Despair.
Focus on durability, Strength, and Perception for your gear, with traits that increase Health, Evasion, Damage, Buff Duration, and Skill Damage Resistance.
This build needs Mana Regen to perform well, and best-in-slot gear is gated behind Arch Bosses so it can take a long time to acquire.

Credits

Written by Nymphellas
Reviewed by Yaen and Dredscythe