Rapier / Musket PvP Build
Season 2
Turns out Musket is actually quite a powerful utility weapon.. This build has crazy burst damage, insane amounts of life-stealing, and is arguably the fastest build in the game. Musket has quickly become one of my favorite weapons and has really surprised me with how effective it can be as a close / medium ranged option.
Hope you enjoy the build!
Check out a video guide with gameplay for this build!
200 DEX - This build benefits from all the DEX passives it has access to, as well as both weapons scaling primarily from DEX.
150 INT - It’s important that this build has 150 INT due to the massive amount of damage increase the 150 jump point gives to elemental damage. This will greatly increase your Sticky Bomb burst, as well as give your Rapier a big damage buff too!
150 CON - For a musket build this is rather uncommon, but for the playstyle of this build having at least 150 CON goes a long way to making you a more survivable melee fighter. This build still retains DISGUSTING amounts of burst damage with 150 CON, but if you are very confident in your aim and trap gameplay going for 100 or even 50 CON is an option as well!
Dexterity
50: +10% chance to critical hit. +10% skinning speed.
100: +5% thrust damage. +20% haste for 3s after skinning.
150: Dodges cost 10 less stamina. -10% decrease in weight of skinned items.
200: +10% bonus backstab and headshot damage. +10% skinning speed
Intelligence
50: +10% critical hit damage. +10% harvest speed.
100: +5% damage to light and heavy magic attacks. 5% chance for 1 Azoth when harvesting.
150: +15% to elemental damage. -10% decrease in weight of harvested items.
Constitution
50: All health consumables 20% stronger. +10% logging speed.
100: Increase max health by 10% of your physical armor. -10% reduction on durability loss for tools.
150: -10% to critical damage taken. -10% decrease in weight of logging items.
Equipment
The ideal Rapier for this build would be Rogue, Lightning Attunement, Keenly Jagged. Not only would this Rapier be great for damage dealing, but all the extra DOTs from its attacks play a huge roll in your stamina sustain thanks to the Controlled Breathing Rapier passive.
The ideal Musket would be Accelerating Traps, Attunement, Enchanted/Accuracy. Since this is a closer ranged fighter you can get away with not having the accuracy perk to favor more damage. Accelerating traps is easily one of the BEST weapon perks in the entire game. With the musket dodge roll you can have 43% haste on demand, something that no other weapon can even come close to!
Both weapons are fitted with Augmented Electrified gems, converting damage to Lighting and adding the Lightning DOT. This build stacks Lighting damage so this is perfect!
This patch the BIS armor perks for PvP would be Elemental Aversion, Resilient, Freedom. You definitely DONT want to run shirking fortification in light armor this patch if you can help it! As always I like to have Shirking energy on my legs for the stamina sustain.
Omnidirectional Evade would also be a nice perk to have on your weapon or armor! Mending Sticky Bomb would also be a nice armor perk to have!
All the armor pieces should ideally have Electrified Runeglass gems to increase your Lighting damage. Energized Runeglass is also a good option here if you opt for more sustain!
Health, Stamina Recovery and Shirking Empower are basically the best necklace perks for a damage build, but Divine is also a good choice too! The Ring is perfect, and an easy one to farm from a boss in brimstone. As always Refreshing Toast and Healthy Toast are must haves on your earing, with Regenerating being the 3rd perk of choice!
Stoneform is the icing on the cake of making this build frustratingly hard to kill. Not to mention it offers this build the ability to get out of a stun when using the ultimate!
Since Elemental Aversion will reduce most elemental damage attacks that players use, this build focuses on reducing Thrust damage. Thrust Damage is the most common damage type in PvP, especially because of those bows!!
You will need food to reach the jump points that this build requires, and don’t be shy to use a honing stone too! Remember to use both Health, Mana, and Regeneration Potions in PvP! I have been running the fire resist potions lately in PvP and been loving it!
Active Skills
Rapier
Flourish And Finish - 3/5 Upgrades
Access to grit, a very fast AOE stagger, and a powerful follow up attack all in one. This skill is excellent for closing out a kill on an opponent while also offering a ton of defensive utility. I only take the first 3 upgrades here due to not running any of the rapier bleeds on this setup.
Evade - 5/5 Upgrades
Evade is arguably the Rapier’s best skill. It not only allows you to have a brief moment of invulnerability, but makes you more mobile, can be used to attack, and can cancel any ability or action! This is a very unique effect and gives the Rapier a high skill ceiling for PvP combat. Omnidirectional Evade can make this skill stack even more damage on your next attack too!
Fleche - 4/4 Upgrades
This is not only an amazing gap-closer for attacking and getting away, but it is also a quick way for you to get behind an opponent and hit them with a strong backstab. This is also a very fast skill to cast and does quite a bit of damage on the initial hit too!
Musket
Sticky Bomb - 3/3 Upgrades
A super powerful delayed burst that can stick to opponents when thrown, this is the bread and butter of setting up that devastating damage on opponents. I find Sticky Bomb is easier to land against players who are trying to charge towards you, or are already in your trap!
Stopping Power - 3/3 Upgrades
I sort of love this skill. Not only does it apply 8s of debuffs allowing you to deal significantly more damage against opponents affected, but the shot itself does not require a reload to use, and can be used shortly after a normal light attack shot!
The distance damage combo of this build would be Light Attack > Stopping Power > Roll > Light Attack.
Traps - 4/4 Upgrades
A brutal rend, with 3s of immobilize and 100% life stealing.. Traps are truly devastating for an opponent to get caught in. The life steal alone means you can just DPS someone in the traps and you will always win the exchange.
Thanks to the Accelerating Traps perk on our Musket, this build has access to a total of 43% haste on demand. No other weapon has speed like that.
And to top it all off, you get to throw 2 traps before it goes on cooldown. Easily one of the most utility packed skills in this game.
(Pro tip: you can throw the traps a decent distance if you look upwards!)
