The Ultimate PvP Fighter Guide for Ashes of Creation
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 PvP content as a Fighter.
Introduction to Fighter (PvP)
If you enjoy getting up close and personal with your opponents on the battlefield, then the Fighter archetype is for you. As a Fighter, you will
have a range of powerful, fast, and gap-closing skills that could give you an upper edge in small-scale PvP situations, especially with the many
crowd control options you have to position your opponent in the perfect spot to deal your next big attack.
Although you may run into some challenges in large-scale PvP situations, you can overcome them if you play your build wisely, and use your skills to your advantage. This in-depth guide will include everything you need to know in order to be succesful in PvP with 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 PvE-focused portion of the guide, it is linked below.
Fighter Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
High mobility skill options.
- Multiple gap-closing skills (perfect for ganking).
- Higher natural resistances than other DPS options.
- High single-target burst potential.
Weaknesses
Minimal ranged abilities.
- Difficult survivability in large-scale PvP.
- Not as "tanky" as you may think.
- Can't consistently auto attack without getting close.
The Fighter's Role in PvP
As a Fighter, your role in PvP is to target a specific enemy and unleash your combo
to deal a tremendous amount of burst damage on a single target. With a handful
of gap-closing skills (such as 
Blitz and 
Leap Strike), you will be able keep up with
any other archetype that may be running away from your attacks. Additionally, timing
is everything for you in PvP — you need to make sure that all of your cooldowns in your
combo is not only ready to go, but also that you have enough Combat Momentum built up to
get the most out of your abilities. Balancing your cooldowns to properly pull off your
combos while building up Combat Momentum and staying aware of your surroundings will be your key to success
in PvP.
When in large-scale PvP, it is best for Fighters to try and disrupt any healers or ranged
DPS players from dishing off their abilities on your group members. By using certain abilities like 
Knock Out
and 
Wallop, you'll be able to trip these enemies, preventing them from pushing out attacks,
while also setting up yourself (and the ranged DPS players on your team) to burn them down. Every battle you encounter will
be different, as there may be cases where you need to distract enemy Tanks or opposing Fighters
as well, which is one of the perks of this archetype — the overall flexibility. If you use your skills wisely, you should be
able to match up with any other archetype in order to distract them, or dish off a heavy punch,
while also having the flexibility to back up to regain health if needed with your mobility skills.
Be sure to stay aware of your surroundings, as the Figher can easily be put in a sticky situation if your mobility skills are on cooldown, and you find yourself being chased by multiple Mages or Rangers. They have a massive range advantage over you, and although you can close the gap on one of the targets, that doesn't mean there won't be several others that keep their distance away from you to safely hit you from afar. Large-scale PvP will present unique challenges to Fighters due to this, so it's important to be aware of where you are on the battlefield, and knowing when to back up and regain health and reset your cooldowns without being too risky.
For a full list of all Fighter abilities, passives, and forms, visit the Fighter Skill Glossary
Fighter Gear Options
When it comes to PvP, you will want to focus on the gear that can support your overall burst damage, meaning gear that provides Strength (your top priority) and/or Dexterity (your seocnd priority). Any additional armor or health you pick up along the way are additional benefits, but when gearing you should focus primarily on those two attributes.
Other important stats to keep an eye out for are Physical Attack Speed Rating, Physical Critical Chance Rating, and Physical Critical Power Rating, which all directly impact your overall damage output.
An example of a useful piece of gear to use in your PvP build would be the 
Black Feathered Tunic, which at Legendary quality
provides 15-18 Strength, 4-5 Dexterity, 4-5 Constitution, 15-21 Pysical Power Rating, and 13-19 Physical Critical Chance Rating.
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, making your PvP build pack even more of a punch.
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 PvP, Fighters will want to use a Longbow as their secondary ranged weapon. The reason it is recommended to use a Longbow is because you'll be able to quickly stack Wounded and Staggered on your opponents before you even get close enough to them to deal your melee attacks, which provide additional benefits to your Fighter skills once dealt on your opponent.
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 Fresh 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.
Fighter Passives and Skill Trees
Single Target PvP Fighter Build
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
As a Fighter in one-on-one PvP situations, you will need to use your crowd control and gap-closing abilities wisely, as every battle will be different based on the situation you're in. Before you even start your battle, you should also ensure that you have Form of Celerity activated in order to quickly apply Staggered to your opponent with Overpower, and also gain an additional source of Movement Speed and mana regeneration.
One of the most effective ways to begin your single target PvP encounters is by opening up with auto Longbow attacks, which will apply
stacks of Staggered and Wounded before you even get your mainhand out, and then crashing your opponent with
Blitz. After landing your Blitz attack, the goal is to maximize damage output based on the different debuffs you can
apply on your opponent. For example, if you quickly deal an 
Overpower attack, you'll apply Staggered on the opponent (while having 
Form Of Celerity active),
setting you up for your Wallop to Trip the opponent, allowing a follow-up 
Maim to deal a massive amount of damage (as it deals
20% additional damage to recently Tripped targets). Follow that up with a 
Rupture and 
Lethal Blow, and your opponent will be struggling to stay alive.
By pairing this strategy with the skils highlighted in the talent tree, you will have everything you need to succeed in single-target PvP.
Below are a list of some of the most important skills to use in single-target PvP situations, and the most effective ways to use them.
Form Of Celerity – Before starting the battle, you should have this form activated. This allows your Overpower skill to apply
Staggered, while also providng you additional Movement Speed and mana regeneration.
Blitz – This is your primary gap-closer, and a great way to open battles. If your enemy is trying to run away, you can
quickly use Blitz to catch up to them, deal some quick damage, and then set yourself up for a 
Knock Out to slow them down
even further!
Overpower – Whenever this skill is available, you should use it. This is your primary "always on" skill that you should be dealing on your opponent to maximize
overall Staggered and damage on the enemy in front of you. If you ever find yourself in a situation where there is more than one enemy in front of you, you can use 
Brutal Cleave instead.- Knock Out – This is one of your most powerful skills in single-target PvP, as it applies Incapacited and Shaken to your opponent instantly.
Cataclysm – This skill packs one of the strongest punches across all of your skills, however, it is also the slowest to cast. Keep this in mind
before you use this skill, as you may find yourself surrounded by too many enemies that could pick you off quickly before this skill even lands on your opponents. It's best
practice to use this skill directly after landing a Knock Out.
Maim – This skill allows you to deal a great amount of burst damage, and could deal
even more when dealt directly after Cataclysm. It's best practice to try to use this skill before
you activate 
Berserk in order to quickly reset it's cooldown.
Blood Fusion – This is your primary source of Health and Mana regeneration.
Try to time the usage of Blood Fusion when you're about to dish off
a handful of damage-dealing abilities to get the most out of it. This skill can save your
life in PvP situations when you're low in Health and within range of your
target to deal some damage!- Berserk – This could be your saving grace or your target's death sentence. Activating
Berserk grants you 30% more physical power and movement speed, and can essentially reset almost all of your
other skills' cooldowns instantly, making it the perfect set-up to deal some burst
damage on your opponent.
Whirlwind – One important note about Whirlwind is that it allows the caster to be
immune to hard disabling effects while spinning, which could be the perfect counter to any of
your opponent's crowd-control skills.
Battle Cry – This skill not only applies Weakened and Demoralized to the enemy you're against, but it also can generate some quick Combat Momentum and break all disabling effects,
making it the perfect skill to use if you're ever tripped or unable to move.
Wallop – This skill is another form of crowd control, as it allows you to Trip your opponent if they are Staggered. By cautious on when you use this skill though, as it also consumes 40% of
your generated Combat Momentum, leading it to potentially harming the damage output of some of your other skills.
Brutal Cleave
Berserk
Blood Fusion
Whirlwind
Battle CryThere are many other skills used in single target PvP situations as a Fighter, but the highlights listed above will give you enough knowledge to understand and adapt as a Fighter in any single-target PvP situation you may encounter.
Single Target PvP 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.
Single Target PvP Longbow Passives
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
The following longbow passives are extremely important to your success in single-target PvP
situations, as you typically will be using your longbow to start these battles. The goal
of these passives are to maximize your Deadly Finisher trigger chance, while also applying stacks
of Wounded and Staggered. Once your opponent is Wounded and Staggered, it allows you to
maximize the burst damage of some of your skills, such as Rupture, 
Crippling Blow, Maim, and Lethal Blow.
In order to get the most out of your longbow passives, you should try to land as many hits as possible. The reason on why longbow is typically a better option than the shortbow for single target PvP is not only due to these slightly different passives that could help apply debuffs on your opponent, but also the fact that it has naturally higher Physical Power Rating than shortbows.
Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the Longbow tree, you must be actively using a Longbow to attack.
Area of Effect PvP Fighter Skill Tree
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
As a Fighter in AoE PvP situations, you will need to be extremely aware of your surroundings,
as you will be very, very vulnerable. You have a handful of AoE skills at
your disposal to deal a large amount of damage in clumps of enemies, but you will also need to
quickly back up from the battle if your health drops too low by using certain mobility
skills. Before you even start your battle, you should also ensure that you have
Form Of Fluidity activated in order to maximize your Evasion, Disable Evasion, and health regeneration.
Below are a list of some of the most important skills to use in AoE PvP situations, and the most effective ways to use them.
Form Of Fluidity – For PvP AoE situations, it's best practice to use this form as it provides you a range of defensive perks, health regeneration, and
the ability to Shaken your enemies with Brutal Cleave. Since you will already likely be alongside your Tank in these settings, your opponents will likely already be inflicted with
Staggered, allowing you to still maximize the damage output of certain abilities without the need to Stagger them yourself with Form Of Celerity.- Blitz – When it comes to AoE PvP situations, you can use Blitz in one of two ways. First, you can use this to close
the gap between you and a group of enemies, positioning you in the perfect spot to dish off your AoE damage-dealing abilities. Secondly, you can
use Blitz to separate you from the group in case you're getting too outnumbered - all you have to do is target a single enemy outside of the clump, and it
will allow you to distance yourself from the trouble.
- Brutal Cleave – Whenever this skill is available, you should use it. This is your primary "always on" skill that you should be dealing on your opponents to maximize overall
Shaken and damage on the clump of enemies in front of you.
- Blood Fusion – This is your primary source of Health and Mana regeneration.
Try to time the usage of Blood Fusion when you're about to dish off
massive AoE abilities (such as Cataclysm). This skill can save your life in PvP situations
when you're low in health and within range of your targets, and is especially effective when pairing it with Whirlwind.
- Cataclysm – This skill is one of the deadliest AoE skills you have as a Fighter,
however, it is also the slowest to cast. Keep this in mind before you use this skill, as you may find yourself
surrounded by too many enemies that could pick you off quickly before this skill even lands on your opponents.
- Maim – This skill allows you to deal a great amount of damage to a line of enemies,
making it perfect for PvP situations with a lot of enemies near the same area. It's best practice to try to use this skill before
you activate Berserk in order to quickly reset it's cooldown.
- Berserk – This could be your saving grace or your target's death sentence. Activating
Berserk grants you 30% more physical power and movement speed, and can essentially reset almost all of your
other skills' cooldowns instantly, making it the perfect set-up to deal some burst damage on your opponent.
Leap Strike – This skill allows you to quickly get out of scary situations. By using
this skill, you can essentially jump out of a large-scale PvP situation and separate yourself from the enemies, giving you
some time to regain some Health, Mana, and most importantly, positioning. You can also use this skill offensively, as it can apply Staggered and
Snared to all enemies hit with it.- Whirlwind – One important note about Whirlwind is that it allows the caster to be
immune to hard disabling effects while spinning, which could be the perfect counter to any of
your opponent's crowd-control skills.
- Battle Cry – This skill not only applies Weakened and Demoralized to the enemy you're against, but it also can generate some quick Combat
Momentum and break all disabling effects, making it the perfect skill to use if you're ever tripped or unable to move.
There are many other skills used in Aoe PvP situations as a Fighter, but the highlights listed above will give you enough knowledge to understand and adapt as a Fighter in any PvP situation you may encounter.
Please note: It is best practice to try and focus on single-target PvP situations as a Fighter due to your overall survivability. It's important to remember that you are a DPS role — not a Tank. Being surrounded by multiple opponents in PvP could be a recipe for disaster if you miss even a single skill, and you can easily get outnumbered, leading to a rough situation. Keep this in mind when entering large-scale PvP situations, and choose your battles wisely. Additionally, consider adding more Constitution and Armor to your build if you plan on being in AoE PvP situations.
Area of Effect PvP Greatsword Passives
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
The following Greatsword passives are the ideal combination for any AoE Fighter PvP 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.
Area of Effect PvP Longbow Passives
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
The following longbow passives can greatly increase your overall success in large-scale PvP
situations. Although you will not be using your longbow much in situations where you are focusing AoE damage, you will
still gain the benefits of some of these passives. The goal of these passives are similar to the
goals of the single-target longbow passives, which is to maximize your Deadly Finishe trigger chance, while also applying
stacks of Wounded and Staggered. In situations where you are about to land an AoE skill, it could
be worth targetting a nearby target with your longbow for a few auto attacks to get more out of your AoE abilities, such as
Cataclysm, Leap Strike, and Maim.
Keep in mind, in order to be able to use the passives from the Longbow tree, you must be actively using a Longbow to attack.
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.
- Feb 13th, 2025 – Wallop combat momentum cost has been reduced from 40% to 25%.
- 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 7th, 2024 – Cataclysm will now apply Tripped to Staggered enemies.
- Nov 7th, 2024 – Knock Out ability activation time has been reduced, and Knock Out cooldown has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
- Nov 7th, 2024 – Blitz will now always travel the full distance to target or stop your character after 2 seconds.
Changelog
- 20 Feb. 2025: Guide updated with new single-target PvP strategies.
- 13 Feb. 2025: Guide updated with recent patch notes.
- 30 Jan. 2025: Guide updated with recent skill changes.
- 22 Jan. 2025: Guide created.
Savvvo is a New World Aeternum content creator with over 5,000 hours of gameplay. He specializes in developing leveling and gold-making guides, PvP builds, and discovering fun, new ways to enhance your New World experience. If you can not find him in Aeternum, he is probably somewhere on YouTube.
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