Soulbound procs are to low at 10% - let's give OBS our feedback

[Kingsman]

I am incredibly annoyed at the soulbound weapons that where released. They just don't have enough kick to make them worth it.

 

The 10% proc on hit or crit for the soulbounds for there spell procs is not an adequate percentile to proc? look at grey sleeper (10% paralyze), redeemer (10% divine mark), nightshroud (10% blind), these procs go off way to slow and the targets get a save vs will/ fortitude ect even if they do it. The 10% figure is really misleading. Remember they only go off on a crit or hit so when you miss or graze they won't go off and then the target gets a save anyway. The chances of these spell abilities going of I reckon is more like 1 in every 20-25 times you attack with that weapon.

 

You are far better of concentrating on increasing dps on other non- soulbound weapons. Weapons that come with the +20% speed enchant fully upgraded with durgan and enchanting are best. The annihilation weapons (+50% crit) are good to.

 

I tried and tested the new soulbound dagger unlabored blade vs resolution and purgatory (fully enchanted ) on my rogue and the sabres are clearly in front. Very big noticeable difference. Because the sabres are a higher base damage eg around 25 range compared to the daggers 10 range all the enchantment modifiers are greatly enchanted as they are a percentage increase, therefore the sabres become capable of dishing out some serious damage.

 

Abydons hammer is ok, but not on par with fully enchanted tidefall or other good 2 handers. One of the hammers abilities the push also leaves your character fatigued (-10 accuracey) when used so I never use it. Stormcaller is great on a ranger.

 

Sooooooo disappointed and magic item selection in this game!

[dunehunter]

Don't think it's because soulbound weapons are underpowered, it's due to the mechanis that attack speed is mutipled, which make stacking attack speed more powerful than any attribute

[Teioh_White]

Yeah, like almost every game I can think of that allows for haste-stacking, stacking said haste is overpowered. And that's the real killer, missing out on that 15% speed boost from no Durgan steel. It's doubly bad in Pillars, as reducing attack delay already gets increasing returns for every point, this game doubles down on that by making speed boosts multiply. So, not only is +15% a bigger boost the more speed a char has, it also gives more than +15% the more speed you have, making the One Stat to rule them all. BIt of a huge oversight in a game that wanted to be balance-minded.

 

That said, the second wave of Soul Bound weapons are better than the first. Those just had Redeemer vs. Vessel and Stormcaller as useful, with the rest bleh. New ones mostly all have some point, at least, and generally can at least find their way to a sub weapon slot.

[dunehunter]

I believe the best way to fix the current situation is making attack speed to be additive instead of mutipled. That will still make +attack speed weapon still has some point to wield but not overpowered.

Edited April 10, 2016 by dunehunter

[KDubya]

Barbarians and Carnage do really well with the soulbound weapons. Give Unlaboured Blade and the Dragon Maw shield to Maneha and enjoy the show.

 

Twin Sting is a nice crossbow, good for two quick shots before going into melee or save for getting a kill and get Merciless Gaze for the duration.

 

Steadfast is nice for the Terrify immunity and the attack Will

 

Stormcaller is broken good on a Ranger

 

Ryona's breastplate is also a great item.

 

I just wish that more were open to other classes, I'd love Dragon Maw on a Paladin, Rogue or a Captain America Monk. Twin Sting would be nice for many as well.

[Blunderboss]

You guys do know that , if u dual wield 2 soul bound weapons you reach 0 recovery by using one DAoM potion ? ( assuming u have 0 recovery from armor , or 20% recovery armor and dual-wield talent ) , If you can reach 0 recovery with soulbounds they will usually be better choice than Unique weapons 

[Kingsman]

Barbarians and Carnage do really well with the soulbound weapons. Give Unlaboured Blade and the Dragon Maw shield to Maneha and enjoy the show.

 

Twin Sting is a nice crossbow, good for two quick shots before going into melee or save for getting a kill and get Merciless Gaze for the duration.

 

Steadfast is nice for the Terrify immunity and the attack Will

 

Stormcaller is broken good on a Ranger

 

Ryona's breastplate is also a great item.

 

I just wish that more were open to other classes, I'd love Dragon Maw on a Paladin, Rogue or a Captain America Monk. Twin Sting would be nice for many as well.

The point I am making is that these soulbound weapons with there special abilities hardly ever go off (except for stormcaller). The storm calling ranger is also one of the most boring builds to play ever. Complete one trick pony.

 

You can enchant almost any weapon to be more powerful then any soulbound weapon.

 

The dagger unlabored blade is not as powerful as an enchanted pergatory, resolution, rimecutter and a whole range of other enchanted weapons also. Hey even a base build non magical plain sabre you buy from a weapon merchant fully enchanted might out dps unlabored blade

[JerekKruger]

As KDubya says, in the hands of a Barbarian the Unlabored Blade will be more powerful than those options you describe.

[Jojobobo]

Steadfast to me looks good, particularly if you're a class which gets 25% chance of Champion's Boon on kill, and immunity to Frightened and Terrified plus an extra resolve are definitely useful.

 

Gyrd Háewanes Sténes is decent on a Druid, as 20% Restore Spiritshift on hit or crit is definitely a reasonable chance at proc-ing, plus the +3 RES is useful as is the raw damage and insane accuracy bonus. Further with a Wizard, a reasonable per encounter spell that stuns seems to be nothing to be sniffed at, and the raw damage works nicely with their Blast abilities.

 

Overall, I think the Soulbound weapons are fine. You're not going to be out-DPSing some of the better non-Soulbound weapons - however a lot of the abilities attached to them seem very nice.

[Blunderboss]

You can Unlock most of the soulbounds pretty easy and then they are atleast Superb , you dont get to make Unique weapons into superb until very late game .

Also soulbounds like Stormcaller , Unlabored Blade , Stronghold Scepter ( for druid mainly ) are irreplaceable and definitely best in slot .

Also i cant stress how important is Twin Sting for quick switch cipher build as it completes your 4 weapon slots perfectly , 3 named Blunderbuss and Twin Sting gives you enough focus to finish any fight 

Edited April 11, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Teioh_White]

One should note all the good SoulBound weapons people refer too are from WM2 (sans Stormcaller, of course). It seems the Devs realized the bunch from WM1 were largely pointless, and gave us a set that almost all have some use in WM2.

 

As for claiming you get Superb weapons late....I think anything gotten in WM2 has to be called late game. At best, it'd be a push, more likely, WM2 will be done after the Sky Dragon or the various ways one gets Superb Weapons in the base game. (Normally Bounty fights, though Tidefall makes a 'best of it's type' showing mid Act 2).

 

I'm not sure you can get 0 recovery either with Soulbound weapons, even using haste pots (which can't be an every-down thing, either. Or at least, not without essentially embracing the same principles behind rest spamming). The only gear one can wear is +15%, and the pots is +50%, for 72%. Dual Wield brings that up to 92%, but still nekkid/ Robe(Durgan)/ Scale (fighter).

 

I guess we're assuming the Unlabored Blade is one, which brings it to 120%, but I don't think many folks would argue that the Blade isn't a top tier weapon. It's more the exception, than the rule, for Soul Bound weapons. Which tend to either be worthless (WM1) or have specific uses, but not a general 'best' weapon (WM2).

[Blunderboss]

Dual - Wield you need 1.5 to have 0 .

Also you can get most of the soulbound stuff right after finishing WM1 .

Unlabored Blade , Twin Sting , Ryonas Breast Plate are just there for the taking before u do anything in WM2 , and you can finish WM1 not upscalled pretty early in the game 

Edited April 11, 2016 by Blunderboss

[dunehunter]

And these soulbound weapons are bound to certain classes only.

[Crucis]

A few points.

 

I'm not a big fan of the Soulbound weapons.  I think that between the initial PoE release and WM1/2, the devs who created weapons fell head over heels in love with binding spells to weapons, whether as straight up spell bindings or as spell-striking bindings.  Honestly, I think that soulbound weapons are too dependent on these effects to make them look good.  There aren't enough nice, simple, straight forward effects.  Beyond this, too many of the soulbound weapons are just plain mediocre even when fully upgraded.  And having them so limited by class doesn't help any either.

 

I kind of wish that they hadn't done soulbound weapons in the first place, and instead just created these weapons as regular Exceptional or better weapons without all the soulbound bells and whistles, and often annoying upgrade process.

[Teioh_White]

Oh, I know you can get them right after WM1, but still have to do WM1. After Act 1-> Defiance Bay is really the reasonable point to decide what to do next, and it's not so much different doing the second half of Act 2 up to the Sky Dragon than it is knock out WM1. In 3.0 we have an option at least, as in 2.0 we'd have to save WM1 for after Act 3 as it wouldn't scale, but have that choice.

 

I guess the point is, after leaving the side-quest-power-leveling hell of Defiance Bay, it's not really that much different time wise if one wants to go for finishing WM1 or knocking out the Sky Dragon + Bounties. At least not use in their defense 'Superb comes late game'. They roughly come at the same time, depending on what order you choose to do the game.

[JerekKruger]

I'm not a big fan of the Soulbound weapons.  I think that between the initial PoE release and WM1/2, the devs who created weapons fell head over heels in love with binding spells to weapons, whether as straight up spell bindings or as spell-striking bindings.  Honestly, I think that soulbound weapons are too dependent on these effects to make them look good.  There aren't enough nice, simple, straight forward effects.  Beyond this, too many of the soulbound weapons are just plain mediocre even when fully upgraded.  And having them so limited by class doesn't help any either.

 

I like the spell-striking effects. It adds a bit of variety to what the player can create themselves and makes for cool effects in game. St. Ydwen's Redeemer could simply have the overbearing property and a crushing lash, but to my mind it's a lot cooler when a Fighter wielding it periodically summons a pillar that does crushing damage and knocks enemies down. Obviously that's just a matter of personal taste though.

 

I will agree that most of the WM1 ones were a bit underwhelming. Stormcaller is cool, particularly in the hands of a Ranger, and the Redeemer is great against vessels obviously, but the Greenstone Staff is fairly meh and I've hardly ever used Nightshroud.

 

I kind of wish that they hadn't done soulbound weapons in the first place, and instead just created these weapons as regular Exceptional or better weapons without all the soulbound bells and whistles, and often annoying upgrade process.

 

 

The upgrade process is sometimes annoying I'll agree, though I quite like having to go through it to unlock new properties of the weapon.

[Kingsman]

A few points.

 

I'm not a big fan of the Soulbound weapons.  I think that between the initial PoE release and WM1/2, the devs who created weapons fell head over heels in love with binding spells to weapons, whether as straight up spell bindings or as spell-striking bindings.  Honestly, I think that soulbound weapons are too dependent on these effects to make them look good.  There aren't enough nice, simple, straight forward effects.  Beyond this, too many of the soulbound weapons are just plain mediocre even when fully upgraded.  And having them so limited by class doesn't help any either.

 

I kind of wish that they hadn't done soulbound weapons in the first place, and instead just created these weapons as regular Exceptional or better weapons without all the soulbound bells and whistles, and often annoying upgrade process.

Man. My thoughts exactly. You have to go through the whole level up BS for a weapon that has a 10% chance for a proc if you hit or crit and they fail there save. So in reality it's not 10% it's more like frickin 3-4%.

 

I'm sorry obsidian but whoever was in charge of making this decision completely missed the mark here. We don want useless magic weapons we actually want ones that work.

[Kingsman]

 

I'm not a big fan of the Soulbound weapons.  I think that between the initial PoE release and WM1/2, the devs who created weapons fell head over heels in love with binding spells to weapons, whether as straight up spell bindings or as spell-striking bindings.  Honestly, I think that soulbound weapons are too dependent on these effects to make them look good.  There aren't enough nice, simple, straight forward effects.  Beyond this, too many of the soulbound weapons are just plain mediocre even when fully upgraded.  And having them so limited by class doesn't help any either.

 

 

I like the spell-striking effects. It adds a bit of variety to what the player can create themselves and makes for cool effects in game. St. Ydwen's Redeemer could simply have the overbearing property and a crushing lash, but to my mind it's a lot cooler when a Fighter wielding it periodically summons a pillar that does crushing damage and knocks enemies down. Obviously that's just a matter of personal taste though.

 

I will agree that most of the WM1 ones were a bit underwhelming. Stormcaller is cool, particularly in the hands of a Ranger, and the Redeemer is great against vessels obviously, but the Greenstone Staff is fairly meh and I've hardly ever used Nightshroud.

 

I kind of wish that they hadn't done soulbound weapons in the first place, and instead just created these weapons as regular Exceptional or better weapons without all the soulbound bells and whistles, and often annoying upgrade process.

 

 

The upgrade process is sometimes annoying I'll agree, though I quite like having to go through it to unlock new properties of the weapon.

You like spell striking effects soulbounds that work one in every 25 times you attack?

[Crucis]

 

I'm not a big fan of the Soulbound weapons.  I think that between the initial PoE release and WM1/2, the devs who created weapons fell head over heels in love with binding spells to weapons, whether as straight up spell bindings or as spell-striking bindings.  Honestly, I think that soulbound weapons are too dependent on these effects to make them look good.  There aren't enough nice, simple, straight forward effects.  Beyond this, too many of the soulbound weapons are just plain mediocre even when fully upgraded.  And having them so limited by class doesn't help any either.

 

I like the spell-striking effects. It adds a bit of variety to what the player can create themselves and makes for cool effects in game. St. Ydwen's Redeemer could simply have the overbearing property and a crushing lash, but to my mind it's a lot cooler when a Fighter wielding it periodically summons a pillar that does crushing damage and knocks enemies down. Obviously that's just a matter of personal taste though.

 

I will agree that most of the WM1 ones were a bit underwhelming. Stormcaller is cool, particularly in the hands of a Ranger, and the Redeemer is great against vessels obviously, but the Greenstone Staff is fairly meh and I've hardly ever used Nightshroud.

 

I kind of wish that they hadn't done soulbound weapons in the first place, and instead just created these weapons as regular Exceptional or better weapons without all the soulbound bells and whistles, and often annoying upgrade process.

 

 

The upgrade process is sometimes annoying I'll agree, though I quite like having to go through it to unlock new properties of the weapon.

 

 

Jerek, what I prefer is reliability.  And those spell-striking effects that only occur something like 5%, 10%, or a little higher are just not reliable.  Beyond that, it's not that there's 1-3 weapons with an occasion spell striking weapon, every frickin' soulbound weapon is drowned in them.  It's like the developers of the soulbound weapons found a new toy and just HAD to attach spell effects to every frickin' soulbound weapon they developed.  It's downright annoying.

 

 

The Redeemer isn't horrible vs non-vessels.  It's just outclassed by Tidefall and, IMO, St Rumbalts, because those 2 great swords have RELIABLE and productive effects rather than unreliable effects.

 

 

 

As for the Greenstone Staff, for wizards, IMO it's just plain stinks.  Maybe it's just me having a certain stereotype of  wizards' staffs, but IMO, a wizard's staff should be less about the staff itself as a physical weapon and more about the staff as a focus for a number of bound cast-able spells.  Think BG2's Staff of the Magi, though it wouldn't need to be quite that OP.  Another problem to me with the Greenstone Staff is that is requires the wizard to ignore his spellcasting, ignore using what is likely a more potent magical implement, and ignore using what would almost certainly be more powerful weapons the wizard's own spells can summon, and use a staff in melee to get said staff upgraded.  IMO that's just a plain dumb design for a wizard's staff.  

 

As for druids and the GS Staff, I'll take a pass on this because I'm just not conversant with druids.  As for monks and the GS Staff, staffs just don't seem like monk weapons, as designed in this game.  In what IMO would be a more rational design, quarter staffs would NOT be reach weapons and they'd be fast, 2H blunt weapons that may not do as much damage as, say, heavier metal blunt weapons like maces or morning stars.  And this style of Qstaff would seem to be an excellent monk weapon.

 

It's also worth noting that soulbound weapons don't HAVE to be bound to a character to be used.  They only need to be bound if you want to upgrade it.  And IIRC, I think that out of class characters may be able to use SB weapons they might not be able to bind.  For example, the SB isn't a horrible mace by any stretch.  It's just lacking compared to other SB weapons.  If you didn't SB it and just used it in its raw state, it's still an Exception mace with a blinding effect.  Ditto, the Twin Sting xbow is still a pretty good looking xbow even unbound.

 

 

 

Regarding The Redeemer, I've made it well known that I think that it's ridiculously OP vs vessels but against non-vessels it's pretty decent, though not in Tidefall's class.  I wish that The Redeemer had been made as a non-SB weapon and was created as being sort of a "Holy Avenger" of PoE.  Note that I don't mean that it should have taken on the classic properties of BG2's, IWD2's, or D&D's Holy Avengers.  I mean more in terms of flavor and theme rather than in the details.  Visually, The Redeemer is wonderful.  A wonderful shining great sword. What might have made it really interesting is if it was a special kind of SB weapon that maybe was "created" in the instant you bound it to a soul and the sword took on different properties based on the order to which the paladin belonged.

 

 

Well, anyways, I've rambled on long enough. 

[JerekKruger]

Jerek, what I prefer is reliability.  And those spell-striking effects that only occur something like 5%, 10%, or a little higher are just not reliable.  Beyond that, it's not that there's 1-3 weapons with an occasion spell striking weapon, every frickin' soulbound weapon is drowned in them.  It's like the developers of the soulbound weapons found a new toy and just HAD to attach spell effects to every frickin' soulbound weapon they developed.  It's downright annoying.

 

I agree that the proc rates on some of them are too low. Steadfast and Twin Sting improved matters with better proc rates, and I have to say that when Eder was wielding the Redeemer it seemed to proc often enough to be noticeable (probably partly because Pillar of Faith would often knock down three of four enemies at once).

 

As I spell striking being annoying, I guess we just see things differently. I suppose the one thing that would have been better is if the weapons had unique proc effects (a few do) rather than reproducing existing spell effects.

 

The Redeemer isn't horrible vs non-vessels.  It's just outclassed by Tidefall and, IMO, St Rumbalts, because those 2 great swords have RELIABLE and productive effects rather than unreliable effects.

 

 

Agreed. Actually I'd argue that none of the soulbound weapons are horrible weapons since they all end up at least superb. I guess Greenstone is the exception since it can only be wielded by classes who aren't particularly going to benefit from a superb weapon (and Monks who have much better crushing weapons already).

 

As for the Greenstone Staff, for wizards, IMO it's just plain stinks.  Maybe it's just me having a certain stereotype of  wizards' staffs, but IMO, a wizard's staff should be less about the staff itself as a physical weapon and more about the staff as a focus for a number of bound cast-able spells.  Think BG2's Staff of the Magi, though it wouldn't need to be quite that OP.  Another problem to me with the Greenstone Staff is that is requires the wizard to ignore his spellcasting, ignore using what is likely a more potent magical implement, and ignore using what would almost certainly be more powerful weapons the wizard's own spells can summon, and use a staff in melee to get said staff upgraded.  IMO that's just a plain dumb design for a wizard's staff.

 

  

I'd agree, I'd have preferred something more akin to the Staff of the Magi though, as you say, less powerful. I also agree that the unlock process is awful for a Wizard. I tend to equip it on Hiravias since I feel it looks druidy but I don't put much effort into upgrading it for him.

 

It's a shame that the best proc on it is the one for the Monk. Certainly 5% is a very small proc rate, but petrify is an amazing affliction. The problem is, of course, that Monk fists are so much better at causing crush damage than the staff, and if my Monk is going to wield a weapon it's going to be to do a different damage type. Had the Greenstone Staff done crushing/corrode, say, it'd make an amazing secondary weapon for a Monk.

 

As for druids and the GS Staff, I'll take a pass on this because I'm just not conversant with druids.  As for monks and the GS Staff, staffs just don't seem like monk weapons, as designed in this game.  In what IMO would be a more rational design, quarter staffs would NOT be reach weapons and they'd be fast, 2H blunt weapons that may not do as much damage as, say, heavier metal blunt weapons like maces or morning stars.  And this style of Qstaff would seem to be an excellent monk weapon.

 

 

Agreed, though I'd actually prefer quarter staffs to be a two handed weapon with +5 deflection, but I definitely think reach is the wrong improvement for them.

 

It's also worth noting that soulbound weapons don't HAVE to be bound to a character to be used.  They only need to be bound if you want to upgrade it.  And IIRC, I think that out of class characters may be able to use SB weapons they might not be able to bind.  For example, the SB isn't a horrible mace by any stretch.  It's just lacking compared to other SB weapons.  If you didn't SB it and just used it in its raw state, it's still an Exception mace with a blinding effect.  Ditto, the Twin Sting xbow is still a pretty good looking xbow even unbound.

 

That's actually a really good point that I'd never really considered. I don't know for sure, but I imagine they still use the universal weapon group so could make a useful secondary weapon for different damage types.

 

Regarding The Redeemer, I've made it well known that I think that it's ridiculously OP vs vessels but against non-vessels it's pretty decent, though not in Tidefall's class.  I wish that The Redeemer had been made as a non-SB weapon and was created as being sort of a "Holy Avenger" of PoE.  Note that I don't mean that it should have taken on the classic properties of BG2's, IWD2's, or D&D's Holy Avengers.  I mean more in terms of flavor and theme rather than in the details.  Visually, The Redeemer is wonderful.  A wonderful shining great sword. What might have made it really interesting is if it was a special kind of SB weapon that maybe was "created" in the instant you bound it to a soul and the sword took on different properties based on the order to which the paladin belonged.

 

 

That does sound kinda awesome.

 

Out of interest what do you think of the WM2 Soulbounds? I think they did a better job here. The Scepter is one of the best implement type weapons in the game I'd say, and the Druid unique ability opens up new options for builds. The Hammer is pretty damn powerful, perhaps not as good as a well upgraded Tidefall but comparable at least (and cooler imo). Twin Sting is, as you say, a good crossbow and unlike the WM1 SBs its proc rates are pretty high. I love Steadfast, but that's cause I love swords and was always a bit disappointed by the lack of good ones in the base game (the Outmaneuvering passive and the Champion's Boon proc are both pretty damn good too). Despite what the OP says, the unlabored blade is damn good (once upgraded obviously), particularly for a Barbarian.

 

What I really like though are the shield and breastplate. It provided a new direction for Soulbounds and, in particular, removed the huge loss you got from not being able to Durganise them (I don't think Durganised shields and armour are anywhere near as important as weapons). Also I think Breastplates are the coolest looking piece of armour, and the bonuses Ryona's gets make it a viable alternative to Superb Plate.

[JerekKruger]

You like spell striking effects soulbounds that work one in every 25 times you attack?

 

Sure, why not, it adds variety to the items. This game isn't particularly hard so you don't really need more powerful weapons. Would I prefer it if they procced more often? Sure. Would I prefer another weapon with X-lash and chance to stun or knock down on crit? No. We have those already, and they're not that exciting.

[Elric Galad]

The true problems with Soulbound weapons are quite simple :

- they can't be refined with Durgan steel.

- to a slightly lesser extent they can't be added any lash (except Caed Nua scepter).

 

 

These 2 are the only straight forward trait they are lacking.

 

I can sacrifice overbearing or coordinating for a more exotic effect but the DPS you miss by missing lash or Durgan refined is too huge. Every other weapon of the game can be added these effects !

 

Add lash effect and possibility to refine to all Soulbound and they will be ok. (Unlabored, Abydon's and Stormcaller would even be a bit OP.)

 

 

Currently for me :

- Unlabored, Abydon's, scepter, Ryona's breastplate are OK.

- Steadfast is good as a defensive tool, especially with the healing effect.

- Stormcaller is good on a ranger.

- Twin stings is okay as a secondary weapon, especially with alacrity.

- Redeemer is awesome against vessels.

- The rest of weapons/situation is between meh and inferior to "normal unique" weapons.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Elric Galad

[JerekKruger]

- to a slightly lesser extent they can't be added any lash (except Caed Nua scepter).

 

Wait, you can add a lash to the scepter?

[Elric Galad]

The scepter had a 15% raw damages lash, upgraded to 20% on 3.02.

[JerekKruger]

The scepter had a 15% raw damages lash, upgraded to 20% on 3.02.

 

Oh right, I get you.