This is the most straightforward Gauntlets pairing and one of the strongest. The Greatsword brings hard crowd control and area damage — Stunning Blow, Devastating Tornado, Guillotine Blade — and the Gauntlets convert every second a target spends locked down into chained damage. You fight from the middle of the scrum, not the edge.
If you want to be the player standing in the centre of the fight doing damage rather than the one poking at the edges, this is your build. Here's the loop, the stats, and the honest catch.
What the build is
The Greatsword is Throne and Liberty's heavy melee weapon: big single-target hits, real area damage, and some of the best hard crowd control in the game. The Gauntlets, added with The Frozen Divide: Nix, are a brawler weapon with two states — a heavy default stance built for holding ground, and Eclipse of Blood, a transformation that raises attack power and combat speed for a burst of chained strikes. Put together you get a frontline bruiser: Greatsword opens the fight and locks people down, Gauntlets do the sustained work while they're stuck. Both weapons want Strength, so the stat sheet is unusually clean.
Why players run it
- No stat conflict — Greatsword and Gauntlets both scale off Strength, so nothing is wasted.
- CC into damage — Stunning Blow and Willbreaker buy exactly the uninterrupted window Eclipse of Blood wants.
- It clears well — Devastating Tornado plus chained Gauntlet strikes handle packs, so PvE levelling is painless.
- Tanky for a DPS — high Strength and the Gauntlets' heavy default stance let you survive the frontline.
How to play it
Open with the Greatsword, always. Precision Dash closes, Stunning Blow buys you the window, and only then do you transform — because Eclipse of Blood pays out in uninterrupted chained attacks and a target that's still moving is a target you're chasing instead of hitting. Stack Strength hard: it feeds your health pool, your heavy-attack chance, and both of your weapons at once, which is why this pairing has such a simple gearing path. In group fights your job is the middle — use Devastating Tornado to touch as many bodies as you can and let the Gauntlets grind. The failure mode is going in before your team does; you're a bruiser, not a tank, and you have no taunt.
The honest trade-off
✓ Why to run it
- Cleanest stat sheet of any Gauntlets pairing — everything wants Strength.
- Hard crowd control that directly sets up your damage window.
- Strong in both PvE clearing and PvP scrums.
- Forgiving to learn — the opener is obvious and the rotation is short.
△ Honest caveats
- No real gap-close beyond Precision Dash — kiters will make you miserable.
- You take frontline damage without a tank's tools — no taunt, no shield.
- Lower single-target ceiling than the Dagger pairing.
- Nix is recent, so expect balance changes to keep landing.
Kit for the frontline
You'll be in the middle of every fight with a lot happening on screen. Comfort over long sessions and clear positional audio matter more than raw speed here.
Quick answers
Is Gauntlets + Greatsword good in Throne and Liberty?
Yes — it's one of the strongest and simplest Gauntlets pairings. Greatsword crowd control creates exactly the uninterrupted window the Gauntlets' Eclipse of Blood needs.
What stats should Gauntlets + Greatsword prioritize?
Strength first and heavily, since both weapons scale from it and it feeds your health and heavy-attack chance. Then Dexterity for crit, and Perception for hit chance in PvP.
Is this a tank build?
No. It's a bruiser — it survives the frontline but has no taunt and no shield. If you want to hold aggro, pair Gauntlets with Sword and Shield instead.
Is it beginner-friendly?
Very. The opener is obvious, the rotation is short, and there's no stat conflict to get wrong — it's the easiest Gauntlets pairing to pick up.