Glaivier - Pinnacle Raid Build

Intro

Glaivier is quite a unique and very versatile class that offers a very strong build setup very early. her main power comes from class engravings and swapping stances, combined with high specialization, which can even further increase those bonuses. This build focuses on balancing utility, survivability and damage. As many other classes Glaivier does not run any counter-attack skills and this spot can be occupied by more utility based skills. There is also a lot of versatility when it comes to engravings as you only need 4 core DPS engravings, leaving the last 2 engravings optional between multiple viable choices. Getting a 6 engraving setup will take time and Glaivier can already excel with only 3-4 engravings.

Skill Progression

• At 280 skill points add Thrust of Destruction, Weak Point Detection to Thrust of Destruction
• At 296 skill points add Thrust of Destruction, Speartip Thrust to Thrust of Destruction
• At 324 skill points add Thrust of Destruction, Air-Ripping Thrust to Thrust of Destruction
• At 328 skill points add Spiraling Spear, Firepower Control to Spiraling Spear
• At 344 skill points add Stampeding Slash, Enhanced Strike to Stampeding Slash
• At this point your main skill build is finished and you will want to use this until you get to 356 skill points where you can either go level 10 on Stampeding Slash by taking Stampeding Slash, Ripping Blades or level 10 on Wheel of Blades by taking Wheel of Blades, Consecutive Spin
• At 356+ skill points start upgrading Red Dragon's Horn, Starfall Pounce and Thrust of Destruction as you unlock skill points. Feel free to remove some skill points from skills like Stampeding Slash or Wheel of Blades if you are in need for more skill points.

Skill Breakdown

• Shackling Blue Dragon is only and main debuff on target. It reduces crit resistance on the target by 18% for 6 seconds. It has small AOE range so make sure you are close to the target. It also does Destruction damage which is very useful on certain bosses
• Half Moon Slash deal decent damage, stagger and destruction. It consumes 20% identity meter so use it in the middle of whole skill rotation
• Raging Dragon Slash deals decent damage and stagger while farming identity meter
• Stampeding Slash low cooldown skill used as a filler to farm identity meter and proc rune effects
• Flash Kick movement skills. Can also be used at level 1, but with Flash Kick, Excellent Mobility tripod 2 extra meters can make a huge difference
• Vault counter skill that can also be used as movement skill with Vault, Excellent Mobility tripod
• Wheel of Blades filler skill that is used to farm identity meter while providing stagger damage. It is used to proc the effect as well
• Chain Slash movement skill that is only usable at level 4 with Chain Slash, Swoop to give you extra 6 meter distance
• Red Dragon's Horn highest damage dealing skill that has 100% critical chance with Red Dragon's Horn, Spear of Destruction tripod
• Thrust of Destruction second highest damage dealing skill that requires full charge and good positioning to fully take advantage of Thrust of Destruction, Speartip Thrust tripod
• Starfall Pounce third highest damage dealing skill that is used at the end of main damage dealing rotation
• Dragonscale Defense defensive ability that allows you to absorb 1 attack and counter-attack by striking back.
• Spiraling Spear does weak damage, but has destruction. Its used in two different occasions. One if you missed one of your 3 hard hitting skills and you need to gain extra identity meter with Spiraling Spear, Firepower Control tripod, or if you need to break armor by using its destruction effect.
• 4-Headed Dragon fairly useless skill that does low damage and is only used if you miss your main 3 damage dealing skills and you need some extra identity meter before swapping stance
• Yeon-Style Spear Technique: Spear Meteor is the preferred awakening skill as it has much lower cast time and deals significant AOE damage

Combat Stats

Glaivier with Pinnacle class engraving heavily relies on high Specialization which also buffs the bonuses you gain from swapping stances. With 1200 Specialization these bonuses are almost tripled. As a secondary stat Glaivier runs Swiftness on necklace as the need for faster attack and move speed, while having slightly reduced cooldowns helps more than running Crit. Crit is not needed for Glaivier as most of the hard hitting skills in combination with bonuses from Pinnacle class engraving and swapping stances will grant more than enough Crit chance to deal massive amounts of damage.

Runes

A good rune setup is important for every class and Glaivier is not an exception. The most optimal rune setup is as follows:

• Galewind, 3 on Red Dragon's Horn until you unlock the legendary version of it
• Galewind, 3 on Raging Dragon Slash
• Galewind, 3 on Thrust of Destruction
• Bleed, 4 on Stampeding Slash
• Conviction, 4 on Half Moon Slash
• Judgment, 4 on Wheel of Blades
• Wealth, 4 on Starfall Pounce
• Rage, 4 on Shackling Blue Dragon

Engravings

Starter Engravings

• Pinnacle doubles the bonuses of switching the stances at level 3, which is doubled even more with high Specialization. Swapping stance from Sun to Moon gives, depending on your Specialization, up to +40% attack speed, +58% crit chance and +45% pure damage for 20 seconds while swapping stance from Moon to Sun gives, depending on specialization, up to +40% movement speed, +110% critical damage and +60% pure damage for 11 seconds.
• Grudge best damage dealing engravings giving you at level 3, 20% extra damage on bosses while giving a negative effect of taking 20% more damage from every hit
• Keen Blunt Weapon at level 3 increases critical damage by 50% which goes really well with high crit chance Glaivier is already getting from all the bonuses

Add-on End Game Engravings

• Cursed Doll at level 3 gives massive increase in attack power but has a negative effect of -25% reduced healing
• Increases Mass increases attack power while reducing attack speed
• Raid Captain increases damage based on % of movement speed, which works well with high movement speed bonuses Glaivier gets from swapping stances
• Adrenaline is optional if you really need that extra crit chance
• Drops of Ether optional and has been used a lot by Korean players. Gives you attack power that stacks based on how many ethers you pick up
• Awakening optional engraving that buffs your awakening skill and reduced the cooldown

Gems

Gems are split into two types; attack gems and cooldown gems. You can only equip 11 different gems and it is important to have a balanced setup of attack and cooldown gems. Optimal gem setup for Glaivier is as follows:

• Attack Gems:

1. Red Dragon's Horn
2. Starfall Pounce
3. Thrust of Destruction
4. Raging Dragon Slash
5. Half Moon Slash
6. Wheel of Blades or Stampeding Slash

• Cooldown Gems:

1. Red Dragon's Horn
2. Raging Dragon Slash
3. Thrust of Destruction
4. Half Moon Slash
5. Shackling Blue Dragon

Cards

Budget starter card set - You will need 12-piece awakening to gain the benefit of 7% crit chance increase

Lostwind Cliff

Optimal damage end game set - You need 30-piece awakening to gain the absolute max out of the card set

Light of Salvation

Gameplay and Rotation

Glaivier is a class that has a specific rotation in both Moon and Sun stance. Moon stance rotation is oriented to farming identity meter while also dealing significant damage and Sun stance is focused on dealing raw damage while also gaining identity meter for a bonus on swapping back to Moon Stance. That same rotation is done all the time with few exceptions where you are allowed to use filler skills to farm up additional identity meter in case you missed one of the key skills. The main rotation is as follows:

1. Shackling Blue Dragon for 6 second crit resistance debuff
2. Raging Dragon Slash
3. Half Moon Slash
4. Wheel of Blades and/or Stampeding Slash depending on cooldown and positioning
5. Swap to Sun stance
6. Red Dragon's Horn + Thrust of Destruction + Starfall Pounce for massive damage
7. Optional if you missed one of the three Sun skills Spiraling Spear + 4-Headed Dragon to gain full identity meter
8. Swap to Moon Stance
9. If whole Sun stance rotation went perfectly without any delays and repositioning, you will have 2-4 seconds cooldown left on Shackling Blue Dragon, but in most cases this will be off cooldown when you finish your Sun rotation
10. If most Moon skills are on cooldown after swapping from Sun stance, use Yeon-Style Spear Technique: Spear Meteor after debuffing the boss with Shackling Blue Dragon
11. If debuff is gone, continue with normal Moon and Sun rotation without it
12. Repeat from step number 1

Summary

• Glaivier is a unique and versatile class that offers utility, survivability and high damage
• Always start your rotation with Shackling Blue Dragon to debuff the target
• Use filler skills when other skills are on cooldown
• Use other non-rotation skills to fill the missing gaps in identity gauge to farm it up to stage 3 before swapping stance
• Always swap stances when you have enough identity gauge for stage 3. The bonuses are too big to miss out on
• Use awakening after debuffing with Shackling Blue Dragon when Moon skills are on cooldown
• You don't always need perfect rotation in Moon stance
• Position yourself properly and wait for boss attacks/mechanics to finish before you swap from Moon to Sun stance for free damage