Introduction
Hello all, recently i was asked to write a bit about Gladiators despite me being the most terribad warrior around. So, what are Gladiators you ask? Well... they are fun as heck slice and dice heroes who deal great consistant damage while looking awesome! Hopefully this guide will be of some use to you fledgling warriors though!




Skills






So why have i picked what i picked?
As a physical swordmaster you may find that the cooldown for the bulk of your abilities are very slow. More over, the damage on many of your abilities are lower in comparison to other class's abilities. In terms of skill builds, there are many other ways to build a Gladiator so feel free to experiment a little as you get several skill reset scrolls as you progress throughout the game. Here's a run though of the bulk of my abilities.


Warrior Skills
So, warrior skills. What do you get? Well the obvious ones are Dash, Tumble and Evade. Beyond that its useful to get the extra HP boost and MP regeneration.


Rising Slash
Get this to level 6 for the extra jump! This follows nicely into Aerial Combo, but don't get into the habit of always using the Aerial Combo in PvP!


Moonlight Splitter
Moonlight Splitter is a useful skill for PvE and PvP. This is mainly because Moonlight Splitter has a lower cooldown than practically all of the physical skills and as a result is a useful opener and bridger between your moves. It also gives you something to do when outside of melee range.


Cyclone Slash
A gladiator lacks any much crowd control with physical skills alone so i got cyclone slash to assist my character in PvE. Its also a useful catcher in PvP, albeit difficult to land.


Triple Slash
Triple Slash is an okay skill. Most of its usefulness comes from the fact that it's instant (like a fair few physical skills) and that you can stop mid-way and dodge if need be. I've levelled it to 11 so that i can use Triple Slash EX. This is another method for air-comboing your enemies.


Physical Skills
The other skills such as Aerial combo and Deep Straight have been left fairly low. I would've left Deep Straight even lower but i no longer have a skill reset scroll . The reason for this is that the damage from these abilities is poor unless you pour all of your skill points into the physical tree. Hacking Stance is another skill you could afford to spend less skill points on as well, but i personally love to use it in PvP and lvled it for a little more damage.

Similarly, Dash Combo, Eclipse and Counter Exile are all fun and useful skills, but their damage capability is low, so its better to spend your extra skill points elsewhere. Eclipse a great skill for when you're surrounded, but when your in a party with people casting AOE abilities, it might be better to save it rather than using it to spread out a group of bunched up enemies.


Line Driver
Such a lovely skill . Line Driver rewards good positioning and is a great damage dealer on large and trapped targets. It does slightly less damage on smaller single targets as it has a tendency to shoot you right through them.


Utility Skills
Skills such as Highlander and Hemorrahage are important skills to have. Highlander is also free... so definitely tap that. It's a good skill for keeping your teammates alive! So if you keep an eye out for drastically falling health bars when in a party, you might just save someone! Hemorrahage benefits the whole team, enhancing everyone's damage, so i've maxed it out.

The Parry Tree is a necessary skill if you intend to go into Sea Dragon Nest parties and survive. It can also be useful in dodging some of those boss attacks in regular dungeons and nests.


Evasion Slash
I'm not quite sure what to think of this ability. As a physical sword master, alot of your abilities thrust you forwards at the enemy, but Evasion Slash does the opposite and twirls you back. I find it useful if you're surrounded. I've levelled it to 2 for the extra damage but you could leave it at 1 as i don't feel its necessary.


Finishing Attack
Another nifty skill. Use it on a boss under 40% hp and revel in the awesome damage!

Build

As a Gladiator you're going to get up close and personal with a lot of bosses. Its vital then you can deal damage and have the survivability to withstand the damage you fail to dodge. My build is still far from optimal but i've chosen to take the critical damage route. Why did i take the critical route? Mainly because Final Damage as a 3rd stat is incredibly hard to find on crests, making it harder to stack effectively and also because Totam Armour doesn't provide any dark %. You should also consider getting Magical Defence crests as Swordmasters typically lack in MDEF.

As mentioned previously, there are many ways to build a Gladiator though, such as stacking dark % or Final Damage. You can see here all of the Swordmaster skills affected by dark damage... which is basically all of the physical ones . For myself, the gears i've gotten are an attempt to balance good damage, consistent criticals and survivability.


Equipment
My critical build consists of:
Great Sword: (Destructive)
Gauntlet: (Destructive)
Head: (Dire)
Top: (Wind)
Bottom: (Dire)
Glove: (Life)
Shoe: (Life)


Accessories
Accessories depend on what type of damage you want to build.
For Critical: Fatal Rings and Wind Necklace and Earrings
For Damage: Destructive Rings and Dire/Wind Necklace and Earrings
For Dark Damage: Tough Necklace and Earrings
For Final Damage: Using Set items such as Discipline Apocalypse Rings are the best way to stack final damage.


Crests
Wind Crest: For better agility/critical
Barrage Crest: For higher MDEF
Destructive Crest: For higher physical damage
Fatal Crest: For higher criticals
Life Crest: For additional health
Healthy Crest: For better defence


Credits

http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/217/20110428/Collection_of_Skill_Build_Guide_Information-4e41ebd1bce96e813-1.html