Imagine standing at the heart of a chaotic battle in Aeternum, your Greatsword cleaving through enemies with raw power while your Blunderbuss delivers devastating close-range bursts that shake the very ground beneath your feet. This is the essence of the Greatsword and Blunderbuss combination—a build that merges brutal melee strength with explosive ranged power, creating a playstyle that dominates the battlefield through overwhelming force and tactical versatility.
The synergy between these weapons creates a comprehensive combat toolkit that excels in close to mid-range engagements. The Greatsword provides devastating melee damage and crowd control, while the Blunderbuss offers exceptional burst damage and utility against groups of enemies. This combination has evolved significantly with the 2025 New World changes, maintaining its viability across all content types while gaining new strategic depth through weapon mastery updates and gear innovations. Throughout this guide, I'll share not only the technical aspects of optimizing this build but also the practical wisdom gained from countless hours of testing, refining, and dominating with this powerful weapon pairing.
Build Overview: The Juggernaut's Foundation
Core Philosophy and Playstyle Identity
The Greatsword and Blunderbuss combination excels as a close-quarters specialist that dominates engagements through overwhelming force, strategic positioning, and adaptive combat flow. This pairing represents a commitment to mastering both melee dominance and explosive ranged damage, allowing you to adapt fluidly to any combat situation. The Greatsword serves as your primary melee tool, providing unmatched cleave damage and crowd control against groups of enemies. Meanwhile, the Blunderbuss functions as your burst damage and utility option, offering exceptional close-range damage and defensive capabilities.
What makes this pairing truly exceptional is how these weapons complement each other's limitations. The Greatsword's vulnerability to kiting and ranged attacks is mitigated by the Blunderbuss's closing tools and burst damage, while the Blunderbuss's limited ammunition and reload requirements are covered by the Greatsword's consistent melee pressure. This creates a combat rhythm where you seamlessly transition between weapons based on engagement distance, cooldown availability, and tactical opportunities. Whether you're facing a single powerful enemy or multiple targets, this build provides the tools to handle the situation with overwhelming force.
Attribute Distribution: Maximizing Hybrid Damage
Your attribute distribution forms the foundation of your effectiveness with this build. As both weapons scale primarily with Strength, this becomes your primary investment focus. However, Intelligence enhances your Blunderbuss damage, while Constitution ensures necessary survivability.
- 300-350 Strength: This threshold unlocks the most impactful Strength perks, including grit on light and heavy attacks at 300 Strength. These bonuses significantly enhance both weapons' damage potential and survivability.
- 50-100 Intelligence: This benchmark provides substantial damage scaling for your Blunderbuss abilities without sacrificing too many attribute points.
- 100-150 Constitution: The remaining points should be invested in Constitution based on content difficulty and personal skill level. PvP generally requires more investment than PvE.
Attribute Distribution Recommendations
| Content Type | Strength | Intelligence | Constitution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PvE General | 300 | 50 | 100 | Balanced approach for most expeditions |
| PvP Group | 350 | 50 | 100 | Extra damage for group battles |
| PvP Duels | 300 | 100 | 100 | More balanced for 1v1 scenarios |
| Open World | 300 | 50 | 100 | Versatile for unexpected threats |
Greatsword: Your Melee Powerhouse
Skill Selection and Rotation
The Greatsword serves as your primary melee weapon for eliminating groups of enemies and controlling engagements at close range. For this build, we focus on abilities that provide maximum damage and utility.
- Relentless Rush: This essential ability allows you to dash through foes while spinning and applying a slow effect. It deals significant damage and serves as an excellent gap closer or escape tool. The Adaptive Rush upgrade roots targets in Onslaught stance or provides healing in Defiance stance, making it incredibly versatile.
- Skyward Slash: This ability swings upward in a brutal arc, staggering your target and applying rend stacks that reduce enemy armor. The Sickening Slash upgrade applies disease which reduces healing by 20% for 10 seconds, making it invaluable against healers in PvP.
- Steadfast Strike: This ability stabs forward to impale foes, then pulls back to rip the blade out. It restores stamina on each hit and generates significant threat, making it excellent for both damage and utility. The Steadfast Recovery upgrade provides healing when the first strike hits.
The basic ability rotation begins with Relentless Rush to engage and apply crowd control. Follow with Skyward Slash to apply rend and disease effects. Use Steadfast Strike to pull targets and regenerate stamina. This sequence establishes control before transitioning to Blunderbuss for burst damage.
Blunderbuss: Your Explosive Backup
Skill Selection and Rotation
The Blunderbuss serves as your primary burst damage tool for eliminating high-priority targets and controlling groups. For this build, we focus on abilities that provide maximum impact and utility.
- Azoth Shrapnel Blast: This ability fires in a tight spread while pushing you back, dealing approximately double the damage of a light attack. It's your highest damaging ability and should be used whenever available for maximum burst potential.
- Net Shot: This ability fires a net that slows enemies, with upgrades that increase the slow effect and add a bleed over time. It's excellent for controlling enemies and setting up kills for your Greatsword.
- Claw Shot: This ability fires a shot that pulls you to the target while rooting them. It does minimal damage but excels at closing gaps or escaping dangerous situations. Upgrades regenerate stamina, reduce cooldowns, and reload additional rounds.
The basic ability rotation begins with Net Shot to slow and control your target. Follow with Azoth Shrapnel Blast for massive burst damage. Use Claw Shot to either engage or disengage as needed. This sequence provides excellent control and burst damage before transitioning back to Greatsword.
Gear Optimization: Maximizing Combat Potential
Weapon Selection and Perks
Choosing the right weapons and perks dramatically impacts your effectiveness. For Greatsword, prioritize melee damage and sustainability perks, while for Blunderbuss, focus on burst damage and utility.
- Greatsword Perks: Trenchant Strikes (increased heavy attack damage), Arboreal Attunement (nature damage burst), and Keenly Jagged (bleed on crit).
- Blunderbuss Perks: Arboreal Attunement (nature damage burst), Keenly Empowered (empower on crit), and Exhaustive Net Shot (improved crowd control).
- PvP Perks: Health (universal damage reduction), Shirking Heals (self-healing), Freedom (reduced crowd control duration), and Elemental Aversion (elemental damage reduction)
Armor Selection and Weight Considerations
Your armor weight choice significantly impacts your playstyle and effectiveness:
- Light Armor: Ideal for maximizing damage output with +15% damage bonus. The dodge roll provides superior mobility but requires excellent positioning awareness. Recommended for skilled players who can avoid damage effectively.
- Medium Armor: Offers a balance between damage and survivability, suitable for most PvP content. Provides adequate protection while maintaining reasonable damage and mobility. This is the recommended weight for most players using this build.
- Heavy Armor: Generally not recommended for this build as it reduces mobility and damage output too significantly, though it can be situationally useful in extremely high-damage environments.
Recommended Perk Combinations
| Gear Slot | Priority Perks | Secondary Perks | Content Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greatsword | Trenchant Strikes, Arboreal Attunement | Keenly Jagged, Vicious | All content |
| Blunderbuss | Arboreal Attunement, Keenly Empowered | Exhaustive Net Shot, Enchanted | All content |
| Head | Health, Elemental Aversion | Refreshing, Freedom | PvP |
| Chest | Health, Elemental Aversion | Refreshing, Freedom | PvP |
| Gloves | Refreshing, Strength | Invigorated, Freedom | All content |
| Pants | Health, Shirking Heals | Elemental Aversion, Freedom | PvP |
| Boots | Refreshing, Freedom | Elemental Aversion, Health | PvP |
Jewelry and Gems
For jewelry, prioritize stats that enhance your survivability and damage output:
- Amulet: Health, Stamina Recovery, and Slash Protection are ideal meta perks. The Champion's Amulet from the PvP track is a good farmable option.
- Ring: Look for Slash Damage, Invigorated Punishment, and either Hearty or Leeching. The Champion's Ring from the PvP track works well for starters.
- Earring: Refreshing Toast, Regenerating, and Purifying Toast are best in slot. Doom's Chance from Lazarus Instrumentality Expedition is a good farmable option.
For gems, use Runeglass of Punishing in your armor for consistent damage output. Use a mixture of opals and onyx gems to ensure you have at least 15% slash protection and decent elemental protection. For weapons, slot Runeglass of Electrified Opal to maximize damage.
Gameplay Strategies
PvE Expedition Tactics
In expedition environments, your role focuses on add control and burst damage. Use your Greatsword for clearing groups of enemies and your Blunderbuss for bursting down high-priority targets.
Positioning is crucial—maintain optimal distance to maximize your Blunderbuss damage while being ready to engage with your Greatsword when enemies close in. Use terrain features for cover during ability cooldowns. Communicate with your tank to ensure enemies remain grouped for optimal area damage effectiveness.
PvP Warfare Strategies
In player-versus-player combat, this build excels at dueling and small-scale skirmishes. In wars, position yourself on the frontline where your hybrid nature shines. Use your Greatsword to pressure melee opponents and your Blunderbuss to control ranged enemies.
For open-world PvP and outpost rush, leverage your Blunderbuss's utility to control engagements. Use Net Shot to slow enemies before engaging with your Greatsword. The key is controlling engagement ranges to favor your weapon strengths.
Weapon Switching Synergies
Advanced play requires conscious weapon management based on situation and cooldown availability. Generally, use your Greatsword for primary engagement and against grouped targets. Switch to Blunderbuss when you need burst damage or crowd control.
Develop awareness of when each weapon is optimal for the situation. This fluid adaptation between weapons separates competent players from truly exceptional ones who maximize both weapons' potential.
Embracing the Path of the Juggernaut
Mastering the Greatsword and Blunderbuss combination represents more than simply learning a build—it embodies a philosophy of overwhelming force where melee dominance and explosive power combine to create an unstoppable combatant. This build rewards strategic thinking, positioning awareness, and mechanical skill, offering satisfaction that extends beyond mere numbers on a damage meter. As you progress with this combination, you'll discover nuances and techniques that make it uniquely your own, refining your approach through experience and experimentation.
The true strength of this build lies in its adaptability and raw power. Unlike specialized builds that excel in specific scenarios while struggling in others, this combination remains effective across virtually all content types. Whether you're cleaving through corrupted in expeditions, battling rival players in wars, or exploring Aeternum's dangerous open world, these weapons provide the tools needed to overcome challenges through overwhelming force and tactical versatility.
As you embark on your journey with this build, remember that mastery comes not just from understanding the mechanics but from developing combat intuition. Learn to read battles, predict movements, and recognize opportunities. With practice, the flow between Greatsword's crushing blows and Blunderbuss's explosive bursts will become second nature, transforming you into an unstoppable force on the battlefields of Aeternum.