Introduction

Leveling in Archeage is not too hard, the main problem with leveling is once you hit level 30 you have to go to the PvP Zones. At level 30 in this build you will not do be able to do much to defend yourself but at level 50 you should be able to hold your own and even beat Non Veteran PvP Players.

When doing builds in Archeage I like to think of the first skill tree as attack, the second skill tree as defense and the third skill tree as support. For other classes in this game you could think of them as heal/defense/support or attack/support/heal, depending on what you want to do but a Hexblade cannot heal and they cannot really do support. So you are left with being a tank or melee damage. Any class that has a role of melee should have some defensive abilities and what good is a tank that is not tanky?

So now we are going to talk about gear & stats. For gear you're going to want a wear Plate Armor and use a Sword and Shield obviously. I think that is a no brainer there. Also the stats you are going to want are Stamina, Strength & Agility. Yes that is the order of importance as well. You could get away with using Stamina, Strength & Spirit because mana is a major thing in this game but you would lose a some evasion to gain a little bit of mana regen. It's not worth it in my opinion. Also if you're smart you will get crafted plate armor, weapons and accessories as soon as you can and then keep them up to par with your level. Crafted gear is the best gear in the game and will always remain to be so, but it is expensive. Once you hit level 40 you will start getting into regrading arcane gear. That can get very costly so spend your money sparingly and wisely.

Skills & Abilties (1-50)

Now back to being a Hexblade, your first skill tree will be Battlerage and you will want to get these skills in this order , , & then . These are your main damaging abilities in this build. does a good bit of damage but has a long cool down and you won't get that till later in the game and you will not be able to finish out your other passives until Battlerage is at level 45 anyway. Save any points you have left over until you are able to pick your second skill tree. At such a low level it makes not much of a difference anyway and you can save the respec fee for buying crafted gear.

Once your second skill tree is available to be picked you want to pick Defense and dive in head first. Pick the skills , & then add the skills to the end of your rotation. At this point your rotation should look like this;



So when engaging a mob you will charge in with , then use and again immediately for a knockdown and again for increased damage, then for another increased damage combo at which point the mob should be back up and you hit them with to stun them and then to knock them back down again. Now unfortunately the cool down timers don't coincide well together so you will probably have to once or twice more before starting the rotation over.

Now you want to spend all your points adding Defense Skills (Prioritizing the Passives) to your repituar but keeping 2 points behind for when your third skill set is available. Once your third skill set becomes available pick Witchcraft and grab & right away. These two skills combined will heal you. I usually add them into my rotation between & because not only will it heal you, but it will also increase the duration of the trip you get from hitting twice which is then increased again by hitting . If they are still under the effects of after the when you hit it will increase the duration of the stun which then trips them again when you hit . However where you put & in your rotation is completely up to you I have seen people use it as their opener and use it as their closer (instead of having to use ). Completely up to your preference and play sttyle.

So at this point your rotation would be , rinse and repeat. This is what your main combo will be throughout the life of this build. Throwing in a taunt and extra damage attack when available.

Now for the rest of your points you want to keep getting your defensive abilities putting your passive abilities 1st except for once you hit level 35 which is when you want to get and add it to the end of your rotation and 45 which is when you get and fill in the rest of your Battlerage Passives.

So by once you are level 50 your rotation should be as follows;



You will want to keep the following buffs up always to increase your health and health regen & . Meanwhile trying to pay attention to the cool down timer on & to keep them active as often as possible.

is used to taunt when in a group setting and is used to save yourself from death if you have friends around that can heal you! You should keep plenty of healing & mana potions/food on you at all times. You will use more mana pots/food than healing pots/food if you are doing your rotation properly and keeping up your buffs but it is always good to have those health pots/food there in case of an emergency.

Skills & Abilities (50-55)

Nothing chages between level 50 and 55 other than filling out the rest of your Battlerage & Defense Passives. I do not see the benefit in when most of the people in your group are going to be ranged and away from you. The Melee members of the group will already have their own ways of getting out of trouble or at least they should if they are good.

You could switch out the passive for if you prefer. If you were to do that I would suggest not adding it to your rotation at all since you have to pick where you land and instead making it your opening attack. It has a decent amount of damage and could be good but personally I do not see a real need for it for anything other than an opening attack.

Another thing you could do is switch out the same passive for which could be very useful when you need to reset the boss or you accidently pull to many mobs. This is purely up to you but personally I like the idea of my shield possibly stunning even though it is a small chance that it happens.

Other Info

When it comes to farming as a Hexblade you are able to do it solo, but you perform best with a healer because you can switch out for and use it as an opener to AOE Tank multiple mobs which is very useful because this game is really grind heavy.

When it comes to a PvP situation though, I hate to say it but you're gonna die and very easily with this build if you try and PvP solo. I recommend no PvP with this build at all but if you can't avoid it just follow your rotation and do what you can do to try and get away before you die. Once you do die respec immediately to my pvp spec (coming in a few days) and go get revenge!

My Other Builds:
Hexblade (Tank) - (PvP) - (DPS)
Doomlord (Tank) - (PvP) - (DPS)
Shadehunter (DPS) - (PvP)
Boneweaver (DPS) - (PvP)
Bastion (PvX)
Gypsy (Support)
Cleric (Heal)
Trickster (DPS)