Gladiator Guide

Gladiators : From terribad to decent (how to do it RIGHT!)

Chapter 1 : Manastones
This is where I have to facepalm at 80% of all gladiators on privat servers.
I'll say this only ONCE.

Attack Manastones ONLY ADD DAMAGE TO AUTO-ATTACKS.
No, not to skill damage.
No, not to base attack.
ONLY, Auto-attacks.

Now, what's our main source of damage as a gladiator?
That's right, OUR SKILLS!
What contributes the most to those skills hitting harder?
CRITICAL HITS!

PVE vs PVP Critical "Caps"
440 is the PVE soft-cap. Let's be VERY clear here.
660 is the PVP soft-cap.

I make this distinction very clear because npc's have NO crit resist to my current knowledge.

Now here's the catch though, you do know how everyone that has been pvping long enough to get their armor +15?
Well just by that they're going to have 225 Crit resist, meaning you'll really only have 215 Crit against those people. That's about a 20% chance to score a critical hits.
You'll have to constantly use crit scrolls to conter-act HALF the effect, meaning your dps is still quite low.
Now if you think you're there yet, don't be mistaken. If you want to TRULY hit hard like a BAWSE!

HP Stones
Now that we got that out of the way, I know we ALL have trouble with sorcerers right? Getting 2 shot by them can't be fun.
Well if you want to live through that, stack HP into the rest of the slots.
A good amount if about 12 stones of +95 HP stones, but you're free to increase or decrease that a bit as you see fit.
Just make sure you get over 10k HP, so you no longer get 2~3 shot by sorcerers.
I've seen gladiators go "Dancing Style" (constantly moving around) with no hp stones, but I only advice this if you have less then 50 MS/Ping. Else you'll just be cannon fodder.

Accuracy
I've heard people keep saying "oow accuracy is against those evasion stackers"
Cool story brah, but it also pierces through Parry (Chanters), Block (templars and some clerics), and yes, EVASION (Sins and Rangers).
Now I've dodged SO many people lately I'm just laughing my ass off.
I'll also tell you that Assassins and Rangers have skills that BOOST their evasion rate quite a bit, so if you have anything LESS then 1800 Accuracy, you ARE going to get dodged.
Do take in account I don't add the -200 accuracy you get from Berserking in that.
A GOOD amount of accuracy to have it about 2000, 100 or 200 more would also be nice.
This should give you a steady hit rate.

Chapter 2 : Stigma's
Now here's where I can easily see if you're an idiot or a pro, your stigma's.
So I mentioned "Dancing Style" earlier right? Well almost all top ranked pvpers apply this dancing style to themselves, regardless of their class.
Now what does this mean for stigma's?
You are going to require HIGH MOBILITY!
Meaning anything that let's you cast, stand still, or bugs at the first chance it gets is a NO-NO!

Skills you should NOT (read : NEVER) get for pvp are :

Precision Cut and it's older brothers
Because by the time you're done casting, your target will be "out of range"

Whirling Strike
It roots you for 2 seconds and teleports you to the location your target was standing WHEN you cast the skill.
By the time you get there, your target it another 10~20 meters further.

What you should get :

Piercing Rupture (asmo only)
It has about 500~600 more base damage then piercing wave, can't deny that much fire power.

Earthquake Wave
We all hate those running little pussies and that "your target is out of range" spam. This will fix it right up for you while adding a nice amount of AoE Burst.

Absorbing Fury
It's a nice self-healing skill, ESPECIALLY IF IT CRITS, and the animation is VERY short, giving you extra mobility.

Berserking
It's just too awesome not too get, come on, you know you want it!

Tendon Slice
Extra root that does damage? yes please!

Crippling Cut And Draining Blow
We are not even gonna discuss this, you get them or I'll drive my pole-arm through you with Draining Blow on the next BG and regain 1.5k HP on a crit, followed by Crippling Cut to finish you off with 1.8k Damage.
How do you like them apples?

The rest is pretty much the standard kit for all gladiators.
Slaughter
Ankle Snare
Unwavering Devotion
Second Wind
Lockdown (which you're gonna need to slot anyways, since you'll be getting berserking)

Frequently Asked Questions

Great-Sword or Pole-Arm :
This is an age-old question asked by many OVER and OVER and OVER again.
The straight forward answer is : Pole-arm because of it's standard 50 Crit value.

The long answer would be. There is no real difference in knockdown rate between great-swords or pole-arm, that myth is old and I've already disproven that personally on retail by stacking an insane amount of crit to get an equal amount to that of a pole-arm. You still knockdown the same amount.

Now the big difference between the two is their Min-Max Damage Ratio and "Strike"

min-max damage
Pole-Arms have a HUGE min-max damage ratio, making it VERY bursty and random. Sometimes you hit for 2k+ on crits, other times you don't even get close to 800 damage on non-crits.
Great-Swords have a small min-max damage ratio, causing you to almost always do the same amount of damage.

"Strike" (or attack speed)
Now strike is a bit complicated, but I'll TRY to explain. THIS ONLY APPLIES TO AUTO-ATTACKS!
A Pole-Arm is a "very slow 4 strike weapon" meaning it can (RANDOMLY) hit 4 times in 1 animation.
Now get misunderstand when I say 4 Times now. I mean it hits 1 big hit, and 3 smaller hits that are 10% of that big hit.
Just look at the screenshot (bottom right is the damage logged)
Image

Great Swords are a "very slow 3 strike weapon" so 3 hits in 1 animation.
Image

Next it the attack speed, and also how quickly you use your skills is also different on either weapon.
Pole-arms are ofcourse slower bit hit randomly VERY hard
I've already 4 shot people with 1 skill chain due to this randomness and 4 lucky crits in a row. Also helps if the person isn't stacking HP and only has 6k~7k HP :lol:
Great-Swords are faster bit hit more steadily in decent value's. Now with these you have to learn how to weave as a gladiator if you want to use if as it should be used, else you might aswell stick to a pole-arm.

Pole-arms also have 0.75 meter of extra range compared to Great-Swords.