Are soulblades fun to play?

[Teclis23]

Im thinking about doing a soulblade build.

 

Are they fun to play and anyone know any good synergies for them?

[Somnium_Meum]

To be honest, i think Soul Blade is weird and it doesn't quite fit the theme it's supposed to have.

 

Soul Annihilation does okay damage but it's simply not fun ability. It's primary attack that does damage and nothing else, so it's pretty boring. There's little difference between using it as soon as you can and using it at high focus levels.

Furthermore it eats all your focus even if you miss, so it feels really bad to build up huge focus reservoir only to miss.

If only we had self-cast Reaping Knives instead of Soul Annihilation... one can only wish.

 

There's another approach to playing Soul Blade - ignoring Annihilation and using discounted Shred Spells, but i think Ascendant can do this much better.

 

 

As for multiclass, Monk and Wizard work very well with both Annihilation and Spellcaster build while Fighter and Rogue are great options for melee build.

[Achilles]

Pair it with a fighter, who can’t use stances and abilities to lock up enemies then pick them off as focus builds.

[Teclis23]

Tried playing ascendent and really didnt enjoy it. To much of a loss while building up to ascended state. In this game ypu need to kill things asap.

[nostalchic]

I initially played a Soul Blade Inquisitor on release and found it quite boring and repetitive to be frank. Sworn enemy > Flames of Devotion > Soul annihilation > Repeat. And the lack of a move ability like Escape or Charge is a pain for a melee class.

 

However, I’ve recently started playing a Soul Blade / Trickster Mindstalker and I find it substantially more enjoyable.

 

You can get:

- Damage abilities (Crippling Strike, Soul Annihilation, Disintegration)

- Good buffs (Mirrored Image, Displaced Image, Borrowed Instinct)

- Crowd control (Repulsive Visage, Whispers of Treason, Ringleader)

- Utility abilities (Escape, Phantom Foes, Recall Agony)

- A heap of useful passives from both classes

- A large damage boost from sneak attack and soul whip

 

It’s very quickly becoming my favourite build. And it’s quite strong out the gate (the Trickster buffs help stop you dying the second you get sneezed at).

[Teclis23]

Paladins are super boring in any multiclass imo. They are fairly powerful but really boring. There is only so many time you can go sworn enemy and flames of devotion before u go crazy

[Haplok]

Yeah, a Soulblade Trickster is pretty cool and decently tanky to be at the frontlines. Have a nice loop with Rogue full attacks providing Focus to burn on Soul Annihilation. Where Focus is an unlimited resource. That said, the nerf to dual-wielding damage will hurt their Focus generation.

 

But in general I think Ascendants (pure or multi) are more varied and fun to play.

[Boeroer]

Sould Blade can apply the raw damage of Soul Annihilation an an AoE with Citzal's Sprit Lance. 

 

Since you really don't want to miss with Soul Annihilation a single handed rapier with modal on is quite nice (lots of ACC bonus). Rännig's Wrath is great for this (since it has extra-extra ACC). If you use Black Jacket/Soulblade you can build up focus with a dual wielding setup (for example dual mortars) or a two hander, switch to single rapier to deliver a Soul Annihilation hit (or crit), switch back to something else and so on.

Switching with Black Jacket + Quick Switch is quite fun since it's nearly instant. It also takes away the boredom.