Blade Turning + Nalpazca = Fun?

[crdvis16]

Has anyone commented much on usage of Blade Turning for a Monk?  I could see it being a pretty meh ability most of the time but for a Nalpazca tank in particular it seems to really shine.

 

Nalpazca passively generate wounds so they don't need to be attacking or taking damage- they just constantly get wounds as long as they are on drugs.  They can spam Blade Turning more or less forever and make themselves essentially invulnerable to melee attack while putting out pretty decent damage at the same time due to the melee attackers hitting themselves.  You can still take damage from range/casters of course but there are a lot of instances where just spamming blade turning is pretty strong.

 

I just did one of the fights in SSS- the one where you attempt to retrieve the slayer relic out on the island.  The encounter has you ambushed by a bunch of high level Staelgar/lions and they come from all sides (so it's difficult to keep squishies alive).  My Mirke (modded to be Nalpazca) can just solo this encounter herself as all of the attackers are melee.  And it's not just their auto attacks- any of their melee abilities get reflected.  They will pounce and knock themselves down, too.

 

You can't really do this with other Monk subclasses I don't think.  Spamming blade turning would presumably shut down their ability to generate wounds.  Maybe a Shattered Pillar with enough attack speed to weave attacks between blade turning could pull it off?

 

Someone more clever than I could probably build a solo character around blade turning.  Just have to figure out a way to deal with ranged/casters.

[Boeroer]

If you have Blade Turning active you can also use Enduring Dance. With lots of INT and some Power Levels it's enough to sustain Blade Turning. It takes 7 hits to end it so that's usually plenty of time. But with a Nalpasca it's surely much easier to uphold.

You can also generate wounds with Parting Sorrow if you engage enemies and then kill them (with Blade Turning) which will be counted as "broke engagement because dead" - but that's less reliable of course. 

Other ways of generating wounds while using Blade Turning is to use self damaging abilites. Berserker/Monk (Frenzy) and Wizard/Monk (Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) come to mind.
DAoM deals enough damage to sustain Blade Turning but of course you need to make sure you get some healing in between. By the way: self damage doesn't interfere with Enduring Dance.

Monk/Wizard is also a great choice because it leads to Wall of Draining. With that you can prolong Blade Turning endlessly. So you don't even have to generate wounds anymore to have it for a very, very long time (as long as there are more than 1 enemies in your Wall and then some).
WoD also prolongs all other benefical effects - like Minor Lay on Hands from those early gloves. Which means you can prolong DAoM to gain wounds while healing up again at the same time AND have Blade Turning active.

Against ranged characters you can just use a Large Shield (Blade Turning doesn't care about your ACC malus), Weapon & Shield Style, use the modal and cast WoD + deflection buffs like Mirrored Images, Llengrath's Safeguard and Soul Mirror. They will miss a ton and if they hit they will do whimpy dmg. Eventually they will shoot themselves to death. Also this helps a ton against AoE spells thrown at you (the shield + modal, not Soul Mirror). 

[Haplok]

Cool in theory, very situational in practice IMO.

Not to mention a boring playstyle that would take forever to accomplish anything.

So yeah, at least for me, definitely not Fun.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Haplok

[crdvis16]

8 hours ago, Boeroer said:

If you have Blade Turning active you can also use Enduring Dance. With lots of INT and some Power Levels it's enough to sustain Blade Turning. It takes 7 hits to end it so that's usually plenty of time. But with a Nalpasca it's surely much easier to uphold.

You can also generate wounds with Parting Sorrow if you engage enemies and then kill them (with Blade Turning) which will be counted as "broke engagement because dead" - but that's less reliable of course. 

Other ways of generating wounds while using Blade Turning is to use self damaging abilites. Berserker/Monk (Frenzy) and Wizard/Monk (Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) come to mind.
DAoM deals enough damage to sustain Blade Turning but of course you need to make sure you get some healing in between. By the way: self damage doesn't interfere with Enduring Dance.

Monk/Wizard is also a great choice because it leads to Wall of Draining. With that you can prolong Blade Turning endlessly. So you don't even have to generate wounds anymore to have it for a very, very long time (as long as there are more than 1 enemies in your Wall and then some).
WoD also prolongs all other benefical effects - like Minor Lay on Hands from those early gloves. Which means you can prolong DAoM to gain wounds while healing up again at the same time AND have Blade Turning active.

Against ranged characters you can just use a Large Shield (Blade Turning doesn't care about your ACC malus), Weapon & Shield Style, use the modal and cast WoD + deflection buffs like Mirrored Images, Llengrath's Safeguard and Soul Mirror. They will miss a ton and if they hit they will do whimpy dmg. Eventually they will shoot themselves to death. Also this helps a ton against AoE spells thrown at you (the shield + modal, not Soul Mirror). 

Multiclassing with Wizard sounds like the way to go.  I've never done a solo playthrough but maybe after my current play through I'll give this a try.  Thanks for the great theorycrafting!

6 hours ago, Haplok said:

Cool in theory, very situational in practice IMO.

Not to mention a boring playstyle that would take forever to accomplish anything.

So yeah, at least for me, definitely not Fun.

Yeah, fun probably isn't the best way to describe the actual gameplay.  I think I was more trying to say that the theory is interesting.  I probably could have made a better post title. 

[Boeroer]

Since fun is very subjective I guess the title is absolutely okay. I don't think you will use Blade Turning 100% of times anyway. Optimizing a build for it (and having fun while doing so) doesn't mean the character can do nothing else.

Also doing a successful solo run can be fun in itself - even if the character appears to be a one-trick pony. 

[dgray62]

Blade turning is great when you are surrounded and getting pounded. And as Boeroer indicated, you might as well follow it up with enduring dance, to get a boost to accuracy as well as a nice flow of wounds while you're not getting hit. The most fun thing about this ability is seeing the hits deflected and hitting their nearby buddies.

Edited May 6, 2021 by dgray62
Error correction

[Boeroer]

Now I'm thinking that it would be fun to cast Pain Link on the enemies, too. Maybe that's possible when confused? I guess that's not an option when solo - but is it possible at all?

[dgray62]

6 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Now I'm thinking that it would be fun to cast Pain Link on the enemies, too. Maybe that's possible when confused? I guess that's not an option when solo - but is it possible at all?

I don't think it would be an option solo, but it would be great in a party for a character who is surrounded. Probably no need if blade turning is being used, however.