44 Marksman / 20 Bladedancer / 2 Nightblade

This spec is designed for RIFT 1.11 PVP.

The spec: 44 Marksman / 20 Bladedancer / 2 Nightblade

I chose this spec over the below for just a little more damage, I already have a lot of mobility with Hasty Departure, On The Double with Getaway, Retreat as well as Static Shot and Repelling Shot if I need further help.

Here is an alternative spec with a little more mobility: 44 Marksman / 22 Bladedancer / 0 Riftstalker

The alternative spec provides you with Sprint and Shadow Shift and you only lose 4% Attack Power and Weapon Damage from Nightblade doing this. You gain a 2 minute cooldown called Blade Tempo that increases Physical Damage 30% for 15 seconds. You also do not lose any increased damage from the soul gifts.

Advantages:

  • A lot of mobility.
  • Perfect for kiting players.
  • DPS at range.

Disadvantages:

  • Low survivability versus melee.
  • Not a melee spec, while having the abilities I would stay away from using them.

Builder:

#show Empowered Shot
cast Empowered Shot
cast Swift Shot

Do not take Empowered Shot out, even though it has a cast time it will not if you use a finisher with 5 combo points because of having specced into Lock N Load which makes Empowered Shot reset its cooldown and instant cast next shot. If you use 4 or less combo points as a finisher, each combo point only gives you a 20% chance to get Lock N Load as to why I said to use finishers with 5 combo points. Empowered Shot hits really hard in PVP, so use it!

Swift Shot also increases your movement speed by 15% and will provide you pretty much 100% uptime as it is the main ability you will be spamming to build combo points with.

Separate Builder / Moving Players:

Barbed Shot

This is a bleed that does damage on the initial hit then additional damage every time the enemy moves. Do not spam this ability over and over, especially if the target is not even moving or rarely.

Finisher:

#show Rapid Fire Shot
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Hasted Shot

I choose to not use Deadeye Shot in PVP, if you want to go ahead.

Hasted Shot increases your movement speed by 20% and the duration is based on how many combo points you used; 5 combo points will provide you with 15 seconds.

Cooldowns:

Strafe – deals a lot of damage over its channeled time of 4 seconds, awards combo points and grants you immunity to Stuns, Roots and Snares.
Quick Reload – resets the cooldowns of Strafe, Rapid Fire Shot, Crossfire and so forth Marksman abilities.
Side Steps – increases Dodge by 50% for 15 seconds.
Blade Tempo (only if you use the alternative spec) – increases Physical Damage by 30% for 15 seconds.

Debuff:

Eradicate – 3 second cooldown since 1.11.

Interrupts:

Weapon Barrage – 10 second cooldown.
Deaden – 15 second cooldown.

Mobility and Control:

Static Shot – roots the enemy for 5 seconds and any damage will not break the root since we spec into Improved Static Shot unless of course they break free or are immune to it.
Repelling Shot – deals damage while knocking the enemy back, it will also knock back an additional 4 enemies around the target since we spec into Improved Repelling Shot.
On the Double – increases movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds with a 30 second cooldown.
Retreat – leaps you backwards with a 45 second cooldown.
Shadow Shift (only if you use the alternative spec) – teleports you 15 meters forward.

AOE:

#show Lightning Fury
cast Lightning Fury
cast Fan Out

Fan Out does not deal as much damage as it use to as of 1.11, so it is normally best to focus on marked targets or healers if no one is marked. Unless of course you are in Conquest and likely with or against zergs.

You do not have Crossfire in either of these specs as you need to go 48 points into Marksman to get it.

Buffs:

Vampiric Munitions
Rending Munitions

Electrified Munitions has been extremely nerfed as of 1.11, I have not seen better numbers with using it over Rending Munitions in the times I have looked at the numbers. The same goes for when I was testing it out in the PVE environment.