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The Ultimate PvE Fighter Guide for Ashes of Creation

Last updated on Jan 30, 2025 at 00:00 by Savvvo

Mastering the Fighter archetype in Ashes of Creation for PvE content requires a deep understanding of its melee-focused skills, mobility, and resource management. This guide will equip you with the strategies, builds, and tactics needed to excel in PvE content as a Fighter.

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
The Ultimate PvE Fighter Guide for Ashes of Creation
1.

Introduction to Fighter (PvE)

Fighter Character Art Ashes of Creation The Fighter archetype in Ashes of Creation thrives in the chaos of battle, harnessing mana to transform the surrounding magical essence into raw offensive power, unleashing devastating strength. Fighters are experts of close-up combat, allowing you to have direct and immediate impact in any and every battle situation you'll encounter.

With gap-closing mobility, naturally high resistances, and raw physical strength, the Fighter archetype is the perfect choice for those of you who enjoy typical close-combat melee gameplay. With an arsenal of unique skills, you can personalize your build to focus on dealing massive AoE damage to take down large groups of mobs at the same time, or go the single-target approach by stacking bleeds on an enemy, burning their health down rapidly.

This in-depth guide will include everything you need to know about the Fighter archetype, including strengths and weaknesses, skills to prioritize, useful passives, best gear options, talent trees, best consumables to use, and much, much more.

In the event you were looking for the PvP-focused portion of the guide, it is linked below.

Comprehensive Fighter Guide for PvP
2.

Fighter Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths icon Strengths
  • +High mobility with gap-closing skills.
  • +Strong crowd control options.
  • +Burst damage potential.
  • +Self-sustaining skill options for Health and Mana.
Weaknesses icon Weaknesses
  • -Requires getting close to enemies.
  • -Cooldown management pressure for survivability.
  • -Gear dependency.
  • -Reliance on Combat Momentum.
3.

Crowd Control and Combat Momentum

The skills of the Fighter archetype revolve around maximizing offensive potential while maintaining positioning. These skills range from a wide variety of dashes, leaps, spins, and slashes, allowing you to position yourself behind the enemy mobs to maximize crowd control effects and damage output.

As the tank is distracting and taking a majority of the damage from enemy mobs, it's the job for the Fighter to utilize their skills to stagger and trip enemies before they land their own abilities, while also dishing off as much damage as possible. In order to maximize damage output, fighters must ensure they use their Combat Momentum wisely.

Combat Momentum is the most important resource for Fighters, as it grants unique increasing stat bonuses based on the Form you are currently in, scaling with how much Combat Momentum you have built up. Pairing these different forms with effective skill combinations and high Combat Momentum is your key to success as a Fighter.

For a full list of all Fighter abilities, passives, and forms, visit the Fighter Skill Glossary

Fighter Skill Glossary
4.

Fighter Gear Options

The Fighter is a DPS class - you are not considered a Tank in any situation. It's important to keep this in mind when it comes to your gear, as you are looking strictly for gear that will maximize your damage output. In other words, you will want to prioritize gear that provides the Strength (top priority) and Dexterity (second priority) attributes, along with other stats that impact Physical Damage, such as Physical Attack Speed Rating, Physical Critical Chance Rating, and Physical Critical Power Rating.

For example, the Black Feathered Tunic may be a light armor chest with minimal defensive benefits, but also provides additional Strength and Physical Power Rating, providing you with important damage output buffs. Defensive perks are nice to have, but you have to remember that you should be getting hit a very limited amount of time in PvE-related activities - it's your Tank's job to be the wall and take the hits!

There are currently multiple pieces of level 20 jewelry available that provide additional Strength or Physical Power Rating, making them ideal for all Fighter builds (especially when it comes to PvE). Examples of these types of jewelry pieces are Lumadon Earring, Bloodied Bone Ring, and the Rividium Necklace.

Please note: The higher quality your gear is, the more additional perks that will unlock on your gear. For example, a common Rividium Necklace will provide only 6-7 Strength, while a rare Rividium Necklace will provide 7-8 Strength, 3-4 Physical Critical Chance Rating, and 1-3 Physical Power Rating. It's important to keep this in mind when crafting and gathering gear, as some pieces become extremely sought after once they reach a certain quality.

One of the best weapon options you can get today is the Lumen Star Greatsword, which drops from the named enemy called Tapmaster Percheh. Alternative greatswords that are still very effective include the Carphin Stonewatcher's Greatsword (which can be farmed at the Tower of Carphin), and the Ancient Dunzen Greatsword (which can be farmed at the Befallen Forge). In most cases for PvE, Fighters will want to use a Shortbow as their secondary ranged weapon. The reason it is recommended to use a Shortbow over Longbow in PvE-related content is because it provides a much larger amount of Physical Attack Speed Rating, which has a more drastic impact in PvE than a slightly higher Physical Power Rating that Longbows might offer. Additionally, the Longbow skill tree's primary benefit is that it provides Stagger, which is an ideal opener when playing solo or in PvP-related content, but will already likely be provided by other members of your team in PvE. With that being said, if you are playing solo, it is recommended to go Longbow for your secondary weapon for PvE.

5.

Best Consumable Options

Pairing the correct consumables with your gear and skill trees can have a drastically positive impact on the results of every battle. Below is a list of some of the best consumable options for the Fighter archetype, and what specific benefits they provide.

  • Rations – Provides health regeneration over a period of 20s. As the rarity of the Rations used increases, so does it's effectiveness.
  • Scroll of Strength – Increases Strength for 3 hours. As the rarity of the Scroll of Strength used increases, so does the amount of Strength gained. You can only have one scroll buff active at a time.
  • Fresh Salad – Provides additional physical power rating for 60 minutes. As the rarity of the Fruit Salad used increases, so does the amount of physical power rating gained.
  • Health Potions – Provides a set amount of health based on the quality of the potion. There is a 2 second cooldown for potion usage.
  • Mana Potions – Provides a set amount of mana based on the quality of the potion. There is a 2 second cooldown for potion usage.

6.

Fighter Passives and Skill Trees

Single Target Area of Effect
Skill Tree Greatsword Shortbow
Skill Tree Greatsword Shortbow
6.1.

Single Target PvE Fighter Build

Single Target PvE DPS Build Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to this single target PvE fighter build is utilizing your cooldowns effectively in order to consistently be spamming abilities on your opponent, leading to a range of crowd control and bleeding effects, which ultimately leads to a great deal of damage.

In any situation where all of your skills are on cooldown, you should be spamming auto attacks. To start this combo, you will want to make sure your Form Of Ferocity is activated, then open up with auto attacks with your ranged weapon until they get close enough to you for you to start dealing melee attacks. At that point, open with Blitz (to gain quick Combat Momentum), and then Overpower (which will cause a Bleed on the enemy). Then, land a Rupture to deal a decent amount of damage and turn the opponent's Bleeding stack into Hemorraging.

Once this happens, it sets you up to deal massive damage with Lethal Blow (which also has a drastically increased chance to critically hit since the enemy is Hemorraging. After this, you will want to continue dishing off as much damage as possible, trying to ensure your skills are on cooldown as much as possible. Once all of these abilities are on cooldown, activate Berserk, and repeat the combo.

Please note: If you are playing this build without a group, you would want to replace Form Of Ferocity with Form Of Celerity (to ensure the enemy is Staggered before using Cataclysm, leading to getting more damage out of your Maim skill). You will also need to pay much more attention to when you use Blood Fusion, as that will be the secret ingredient to staying alive and having enough mana to keep activating skills.

6.2.

Single Target Greatsword Passives

Single Target Greatsword Passives Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following greatsword passives are the ideal combination for any single-target Fighter build. The primary goal for your greatsword is to stack overall trigger chance for Deadly Finisher and Extended Deadly Finisher in order to apply Bleeding, Shaken, and Snared on your opponent. These passives allow you to enhance the damage output of not only your auto attacks, but also your skills.

Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the greatsword tree, you must be actively using a greatsword to attack.


6.3.

Single Target Shortbow Passives

Single Target PvE Shortbow Passives Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following shortbow passives are ideal for single-target PvE situations. The goal of these passives are to maximize your Deadly Finisher and Extended Deadly Finisher trigger chance, while also applying stacks of Bleeding and Snared. Additionally, these passives will provide a large boost in your overall Critical Strike Chance and Critical Hit Damage.

The reasoning on why it's recommended to use a shortbow instead of a longbow is not only due to these passives, but also due to the fact that shortbows provide a much, much larger amount of Physical Attack Speed when compared to longbow. In PvE situations, you will likely be right on top of the enemy you are attacking, with taking minimal damage (as long as your Tank is doing their job), meaning that you will likely be in a position of landing a larger amount of consistent auto attacks, making the additional Physical Attack Speed very beneficial.

Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the shortbow tree, you must be actively using a shortbow to attack.


6.4.

Area of Effect PvE Fighter Skill Tree

AoE Fighter PvE Build Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

One of the most effective ways to level as a Fighter in Ashes of Creation is by defeating large quantities of mobs as quickly as possible. With an AoE build, Fighters have the capability to deal massive amounts of damage to large quantities of mobs at the same time, making it a great option for leveling and PvE-related activities that involve many enemies.

One important thing to note is that in order to properly pull off an effective AoE Fighter build, you must be at least level 12. This is due to the requirement of certain skills that you unlock as you progress your character. Prior to level 12, it is recommended to run the single-target build for PvE content.

The image to the right showcases the skill prioritization as you progress your character up to level 25. As you can see, at level 12 you can unlock the Blood Fusion skill, allowing you to self-sustain Health and Mana, which is critically important to succesfully pulling off the necessary combos.

Regarding how you use these skills, it might be slightly different based on whether or not you are in a group.

If you are in a group, your first step is to ensure you have Form Of Ferocity active. Then, start your initial contact with your enemies by using Blitz, dealing some initial damage (and generating 20 Combat Momentum). Next, use Brutal Cleave (generating even more Combat Momentum based on the number of targets hit), while also applying Bleeding on all targets (due to having Form of Ferocity active). After this, you will want to use Cataclysm. This ability has a very long cast time (at 2.1s), so as this is casting, you will want to use Blood Fusion, granting you with a large amount of Health and Mana almost instantly as Cataclysm lands. With Catalsysm landing on your enemies, it will apply Shaken to enemies hit, making it the perfect time to then use Battle Cry (generating a good amount of Combat Momentum). There is a good chance that the enemies will also be Tripped at this point, allowing your next skill in this combo, Maim, to deal even more damage. After Maim lands, you will see that you are at an extremely high amount of Combat Momentum, making it the perfect time to use Berserk.

After using Berserk, the cooldowns for all of your previous skills should now be reset, allowing you to quickly go through the rotation again, but this time ending with Whirlwind instead of Berserk. This is primarily due to the fact that Berserk has a much longer cooldown than all of your other abilties (other than Catalyst, which will also likely be on cooldown). It's also recommended to use Maim right after Berserk for your second rotation to keep it's cooldown running, as it's your primary source of AoE damage.

The goal for this build is to try to ensure all of your abilities are working with each other, and are constantly on cooldown in order to maximize damage output. It is best to try and ensure that Brutal Cleave is being used as much as possible, and to view Whirlwind as an ability to deal consistent AoE damage as you wait for your other skills (or Berserk) to be available.

Please note: If you are playing this build without a group, you would want to replace Form Of Ferocity with Form Of Celerity (to ensure your enemies are Staggered before using Cataclysm, leading to getting more damage out of your Maim skill). You will also need to pay much more attention to when you use Blood Fusion, as that will be the secret ingredient to staying alive and having enough mana to keep activating skills.

6.5.

Area of Effect PvE Greatsword Passives

AoE PvE Fighter Greatsword Passives Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following greatsword passives are the ideal combination for any AoE Fighter PvE build. Similar to the single-target greatsword passives, these passives allow you to stack overall trigger chance for Deadly Finisher and Extended Deadly Finisher in order to apply stacks of Bleeding, Shaken, and Snared on your opponents. These are a bit trickier to land due to the fact that you'd be targeting multiple enemies at once, but it's still very effective in maximizing your damage output, and adding additional benefits to certain AoE skills, such as Cataclysm, Leap Strike, and Maim.

Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the greatsword tree, you must be actively using a greatsword to attack.


6.6.

Area of Effect PvE Shortbow Passives

AoE Fighter PvE Shortbow Passives Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following shortbow passives are ideal for AoE PvE situations. The goal of these passives are to maximize your Deadly Finisher and Extended Deadly Finisher trigger chance, while also applying stacks of Bleeding and Snared to the group of enemies you are attacking. Additionally, these passives will provide a large boost in your overall Critical Strike Chance and Critical Hit Damage, providing an overall increase in damage for your AoE skills.

The reasoning on why it's recommended to use a shortbow instead of a longbow is not only due to these passives, but also due to the fact that shortbows provide a much, much larger amount of Physical Attack Speed when compared to longbow. In AoE PvE situations, you will likely be right on top of the group of enemies you are attacking, with taking minimal damage (as long as your Tank is doing their job), meaning that you will likely be in a position of landing a larger amount of consistent auto attacks, making the additional Physical Attack Speed very beneficial.

Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the shortbow tree, you must be actively using a shortbow to attack.


7.

Patch Updates

A recent list of Fighter patch updates will be listed below. In order to keep the page condensed, only the most recent changes will be shown if the list exceeds a certain length.

  • Jan 30th, 2025 – All forms now granted automatically upon leveling. Form Of Fluidity unlocks at level 5, and Form Of Celerity unlocks at level 10. The passives for Fluidity and Celerity have been swapped: Fluidity now provides health regeneration, Celerity now provides mana regeneration. Both passives now restore up to 1% health or mana after a succesful weapon combo finisher based on current combat momentum.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Cataclysm has a reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Wallop charges are reduced from 3 to 1, now trips staggered targets, and has an added passive which will return 30% of momentum spent as a percentage of maximum health to the caster over 6 seconds.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Crippling Blow no longer trips staggered targets. This skill now applies an additional Snare stack to Staggered targets.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Battle Cry has an added passive that breaks crowd control upon activation. Also now applies the Demoralized effect to enemies.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Berserk no longer has the crowd control break passive available on the skill tree.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Knock Out now applies Shaken to the target.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Form Of Fluidity now grants up to 15% additional phyiscal/magical evasion based on current combat momentum, and has an adjusted Disable Evasion from 40% to 25%.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Leap Strike now Staggers instead of Snares (will still apply 3 Snare stacks to Shaken targets).
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Rupture now stacks its effect multiple times on the same target when used consecutively or by multiple fighters.
  • Jan 30th, 2025 – Whirlwind has reduced post-animation frames and improved transitions into subsequent abilities. The final hit from the Climactic passive now Staggers enemies. Spin hit damage is increased from 30% to 45%.
  • Jan 16th, 2025 – Forms will now persist after logging out.
  • Nov 17th, 2024 – Cataclysm will now apply Tripped to Staggered enemies.
  • Nov 17th, 2024 – Knock Out ability activation time has been reduced, and Knock Out cooldown has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Nov 17th, 2024 – Blitz will now always travel the full distance to target or stop your character after 2 seconds.
8.

Changelog

  • 30 Jan. 2025: Guide updated with recent skill changes.
  • 13 Jan. 2025: Guide created.
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