← Hero Guides · Weapon
By Amya · Updated 2026-10-26

Bastard Sword
Loadouts
pick one columnRiposte
S+ once you know itThe highest skill ceiling and the most damage, for far less survivability. Double Dash into Riposte, S+ tier once you have the tech, but some metas don't welcome it.
Spam 2x Dash into Moulinet into Riposte, keeping the damage buff up for the two dashes. Take Fluid Shadow for the ultimate; CCi is only useful in Territory War and comp games. The build screenshot is in the section below.
Keep checking that you are under the armour cap for the damage boost. Stamina management and positioning matter most.
Spell dmg & Riposte
Plays around your spells more than Riposte. Let every spell land all its hits instead of cancelling it at once.
The same passives as Riposte, but take Eclipse Twin-Slash instead of the +60% Riposte damage passive, so your abilities hit with full damage in between Ripostes. The screenshot is in the section below.
Carnifex's Or 4x medium, and let the pieces break.
Watch not to go over 1500 total defence (piercing, slashing and blunt defence added together).
Tank
The new Poleaxe meta. Block, damage reduction, CC and escapes keep you alive and open room for your units, for far less damage.
Impregnable Wall and Bulwark Stance are a must. Take Blade Blast as the third bottom passive, with Whirling Recovery and Cheaseless Strikes, so Hew spam brings your ult back fast. Siege Breaker or Sword Dance also work as the third. The passives screenshot is in the section below.
Guardsman's With the epic schematic weapon.
Stoneguard In a meta where nothing can oneshot you, with Last Rite, the Stoneguard weapon.
Good to know
Armour is not a ladder on this weapon, it is a choice between the builds: Riposte and Spell dmg & Riposte only work while your total defence is under 1500, and the Tank build wants the opposite.
- Best gender
- N/A (Animation Change depending on it)
- Aiming
- Hero: Assisted on, Locked off · Units: Assisted off, Locked off
Crafting
Weapon
- Must roll
- Slashing DMG / Slashing Pen
- Aim for
- Slashing Damage~321+max 535Slashing Pen~336+max 560
Rule of thumb: get your main damage and penetration to 60% of max. The ceilings are the Legendary rolls on the Conviction.
- Also good
- Strength / Critical Hit Chance / Critical Damage
Best runes this season When a slot says "Pick one", both runes are playable: take the one that fits how you play. Helm: both are playable, but I prefer Crown Soul's extra 10% unit damage reduction over Abyssal Rift's poison, unless you play a diving class. Armour: Flower War triggers on skills whose tooltip shows the DAMAGE tag without RANGED (here: Leaping Hew, Cross Execution, Hew, Riposte), and its +25% defence does not count toward the defence caps on passives. Bracers: Diving Eagle is a must if you run lance cavalry in your warband. It costs 3, so drop Yang Fire VII for it. If you don't run Buckler or Poleaxe units, take Yang Fire VII and VIII on the armour instead.
Guide
by Amya · 6 partsDepending on the build you choose, you must set clear rules for yourself. Some builds make you weak against units, others against heroes, but in return they offer strong advantages in other roles. Your goal is to fully exploit the main strength of your build instead of trying to do everything. There are many viable variants, and I’ll keep updating this as more data comes in.
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.: the highest skill ceiling and the most damage, at the cost of far less survivability. Some metas don’t welcome it.- Spell dmg &
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.: plays less around
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. and more around your spells. You skip the node that boosts
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. hard at the cost of spell damage, so you let every spell land all its hits instead of cancelling it at once. You can still cancel as soon as the last damage hit lands, or when you need to dodge something. - Tank: uses the block, the passive damage reduction, the CC, the escapes and the whole kit to bring back a new Poleaxe meta, and does it better. The two things that made Poleaxe OP, Weapon Dance and its AOE CC ultimate, are both in the Bastard Sword ult in a single spell, plus its own heal and damage reduction. It opens room for units with huge CC that soak damage, at the cost of doing far less damage.
It all depends on your playstyle: play around your strengths.
RiposteDouble Dash into
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.. S+ tier once you know the tech.

Spam 2x Dash into Moulinet into
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.. There are a LOT of hidden mechs on the class about stamina and dmg boost.
Full STR, 4/4 Carnifex (you can let it break itself for more dmg) or 2x light, 2x medium and Epic Shem weapon, double slashing weapon (bonus str/crit chance/crit dmg). Keep checking you are under the armor cap for dmg boost.
Take Fluid Shadow for ult; CCi is only useful in TW / comp games. You can tweak the build like you want, but overall playing fully around double Dash into
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. is goated.
Keep the DMG buff up for 2x Dash, then just spam
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.. Being close lets you hit swing AND wave; it’s just the best build until nerf. Left, left, hold right click swing, and repeat.
Stamina management and positioning are what matter most.
With the above node that you take in the
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. build, even snare/winded can be i-framed (30% skill, 70% “is the server lagging or not”).
Golden rules:
- Never natural roll, always Dash. Same input, but you need a spell or a left or right click before your initial Dash.
- In a blob, always buff yourself with the stamina (E) and the penetration (Q), make sure you have both Dash buffs up, and use up to 3 Ripostes to keep your stamina at a good rate forever.
- In a 1v1 and the like, know that your ult is a hard stagger that cancels most non-CCI spells. Play a LOT around the right click hold that makes your next
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. knock: you can hold right click, still cast a spell, Dash,
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage., and it is still a knocking
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. even 3s later. Very OP. - A
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. in the back not only hits twice as hard, it sometimes hits 4x as high since it double hits, so make sure to position yourself the right way.
Start your first Riposte with a Dash, not a roll
I see a lot of
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. players initiating their first
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. wrong, starting with a roll like this. It wastes stamina, and you can end up taking high burst or getting stunlocked, because there is no iFrame on a roll.
What you can do instead is left or right click, or an ability, into dodge to instantly go into Dash, like this.
Stamina management
One of the biggest problems with the
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. build is stamina management. If you hit 2-3x
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. per Dash, you keep your stamina full and keep the damage buff from Dash fully stacked for the whole fight, even if you didn’t use E for the stamina buff. You can spam dodge for iFrames when you feel you are in trouble, or about to get pinned or bursted by a high damage ability.
Best passives for Riposte
Imo these are the best passives. The highlighted ones are mandatory, but the rest can be changed based on preference.


How I fight in a blob or against units
Start with E for the iFrame and reduced stamina consumption on Dash, then Q and Dash to cancel the animation, which gives you a shield and debuffs enemy damage if you hit them.
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. 1-3x depending on whether you need the iFrames or not.
You can also use R for CC, or for escaping and flanking, and it debuffs enemies so they take +15% damage from all sources.
For the ult, most of the time I cast and cancel it to daze units, debuff them and get some HP back.
Shield from Q, twice
You can also get a shield from Q twice: once on horse dismount, and another when using it on foot (if you don’t chain the one from dismount). It doesn’t stack, but it’s useful to tank a little bit of damage or save you from death.
A good shield passive is Impregnable Wall: it works with both the normal Q and the Q from horse, so you have it perma up.

Flick the ult
You can also flick the ult’s last hit and damage people in all 360 degrees.
Spell dmg &
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage.Full STR.
Full STR. Armour is either 2x light and 2x medium, or 4x medium (and let the pieces break), with the epic schematic weapon.
For this hybrid build I use the same passives as the
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. build. The only difference is that I put this passive instead of the +60%
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. damage one, because it feels nice to use abilities with full damage in between Ripostes to manage stamina better: you use all the hits from Q and E, not just use and cancel them for the buffs.

- Eclipse Twin-Slash:
Cross Execution
Cross ExecutionUnleashes a sword aura that inflicts Knockback on surrounding enemies, then follows up with 3 powerful slashes. The first two hits deal 166% Base + 1657 Slashing Damage, and the final hit deals 188% Base + 2054 Slashing Damage while inflicting Knockup.
Control Removal:
Removes Dazed and Knockdown.
Buff:
Instantly restores 20% of lost health, and grants [Spirit] for 15 s: enemies within 10 m deal 30% less damage, and killing enemy Units restores 2% max health. Lasts 15 s. grants Hollow Veil for 16 seconds: damage against targets with higher Base Defence than you is increased by 4% for every 100 points of difference (up to 40%).
This passive is like a guaranteed +40% damage buff for 16 seconds after you cast the first hit of the ult, since on Bastard Sword you have to play medium or light armour and everyone else is heavy (Glaive with +60% defence after its ult).
Watch not to go over 1500 total defence: your piercing, slashing and blunt defence added together. Here that is 498 + 485 + 507 = 1490.

TankArmour: the Epic Schematic Poleaxe set (Fearless Paladin) for higher defence and the HP buff, or Guardsman’s, both...
Armour: the Epic Schematic Poleaxe set (Fearless Paladin) for higher defence and the HP buff, or Guardsman’s, both with the epic schematic weapon. Or Stoneguard with Last Rite, the Stoneguard weapon, in a meta where nothing can oneshot you. Full STR or Full HP.
These are the passives for the Tank build. The ones with a red square can be changed based on preference.

For the 3 passives at the bottom, these two are a must:
- Impregnable Wall:
Leaping Hew
Leaping HewLeaps forward and cleaves down with the sword, launching a 2-hit attack. Each hit deals 118% Base + 1021 Slashing Damage. grants a shield equal to 200% of total base Defence (up to 4000) for 3.5 seconds. - Bulwark Stance: After
Moulinet Advance
Moulinet AdvanceSwings the sword, continuously blocking incoming attacks while dealing multiple hits of 86% Base + 861 Slashing Damage.
Control Removal:
Removes Dazed, Knockdown, and Concussed., damage you take is reduced by 24% for 8 seconds.
For the third, take this one:
- Blade Blast:
Hew
HewFirst hit deals 100% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Third hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Fourth hit deals 170% Piercing Damage. releases 1 wave of sword energy.

It works with two passives from the middle row:
- Whirling Recovery:
Cross Execution
Cross ExecutionUnleashes a sword aura that inflicts Knockback on surrounding enemies, then follows up with 3 powerful slashes. The first two hits deal 166% Base + 1657 Slashing Damage, and the final hit deals 188% Base + 2054 Slashing Damage while inflicting Knockup.
Control Removal:
Removes Dazed and Knockdown.
Buff:
Instantly restores 20% of lost health, and grants [Spirit] for 15 s: enemies within 10 m deal 30% less damage, and killing enemy Units restores 2% max health. Lasts 15 s. cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. If the sum of your base Defences is above 2100, using it also restores 10% of lost Health and reduces its cooldown by 10 more seconds. - Cheaseless Strikes: While under Spirit, each enemy hit by
Hew
HewFirst hit deals 100% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Third hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Fourth hit deals 170% Piercing Damage. reduces Ultimate cooldown by 0.2 s.


Ult first, then spam
Hew
HewFirst hit deals 100% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Third hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Fourth hit deals 170% Piercing Damage. into something dense, like Stalwarts, a Phalanx or a tight enemy blob. The wave hits a lot of models, and every model hit takes 0.2s off your ult, so each swing can take 2 to 4 seconds off. Your ult can come back in 5 to 10 seconds, which keeps Spirit up (enemies within 10 m deal 30% less damage) on the whole enemy blob. Best case from a tank player we trust: a 5s ult cooldown, 6 ults in one short teamfight, and 2 million unit damage on 45k HP.
If you prefer something else for the third, these also work:
- Siege Breaker: The counterweight ball of
Driving Thrust
Driving ThrustHold to dash forward, inflicting Knockback on enemies in the path and dealing 110% Base + 1359 Piercing Damage.
On release, unleashes a powerful thrust, dealing 131% Base + 1572 Piercing Damage to enemies in front.
Finally, strikes the enemy with the weapon's pommel, dealing 167% Base + 1346 Blunt Damage and inflicting Concussed. always breaks Guard. - Sword Dance:
Hew
HewFirst hit deals 100% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Third hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Fourth hit deals 170% Piercing Damage. reduces Stamina consumption by 25% for 1.5 seconds after use. If the sum of your base Defences is 2100 or lower,
Hew
HewFirst hit deals 100% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Third hit deals 112% Slashing Damage;
Fourth hit deals 170% Piercing Damage. grants immunity to normal Dazed effects.
Tips
- This class works with any armor set, but as a melee AOE unit-hitter, full light armor is generally a bait option.
- If you are playing the
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. or Spell dmg &
Riposte
RiposteRaises sword to block and unleashes 2 slashes:
First hit deals 105% Slashing Damage;
Second hit deals 112% Slashing Damage. build, look to not go over the cap. Think about a few tricks such as letting your stuff break itself for lower armor value (while keeping the actual bonus set). - Weapon runes: if you don’t use E as DPS, swap Stone Dance for Yang Fire VII and Yang Fire VIII.















