I want to build an MF character around the Trakts Illumination nova gun, which requires either Guardian or Blademaster.

I figured a Guardian would be the obvious choice, but then I figured out that this Blademaster build might be viable:

http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/blademaster/?l=50&s=00000800a000000a00a00a00000

Pros:
No willpower points required, so it's high Stamina
Huge thorns damage for those sticky situations
Nice crit added with the aura
High level fear spell if I need to scatter a group
Not restricted in movement
Cons:
Not too much added to my nova gun damage by any kind of skills.

Or, I can build a Guardian

http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/guardian/?l=50&s=10000a0000070000000000000000

Pros:
No STR required so I save a few points that can go into will and stamina
150% added damage when I anchor
Points left for 3 or 4 maxed auras
I could replace 1 tracks with a North Star and use shield skills and also get the +1
Cons:
Have to stand still to get the anchor damage addition

Question is: will anchor still work if I don't have a shield?

Does thorns actually work? for some reason i thought that it did not work as well as it sounds.


And for the guardian i would also add ( at least ) Maxed aura of defense and prayer of healing

luck is overrated
if you are playing in a party of 3 or more people using little or no luck, drops will be much higher quality than if soloing with even a thousand luck
when i played my guardian using trakts+keper totalling around 800 luck, i noticed no significant increase in the quality of drops, and nova guns being so terrible, i couldnt kill anything, and thorns is not very reliable when you face higher leveled monsters


if you play in big parties a lot, you could try the keeper/trakt build and just shield turn + phase with a fully upped trakts while youe party does the damage

yes anchor works if you dont use a shield
and you shouldnt put any pointsi nto STR on any guardian, they have the spiritual strength skill which gives -12 strength feed per level

Yeah this is just for full party boss farming

I have read that 750+ luck is target to really notice things. but I will say with 250+ luck I rarely get a white item. so in that regard, luck does exactly what it is supposed to do.