Devoted/Soul blade build question

[SilverSaint]

In PoE1 I played a ranged Cipher, so in PoE2 I planned to continue this, but with a more melee oriented approach using sabers for a more pirate captain theme.  That being said I have a few questions that maybe some of the beta players have answers too or others just better ideas then me in general.

 

Is dual wielding better then one handed?  The 20% of hits converted to crits along with higher accuracy seems pretty strong.

 

Assuming dual wielding is better is confident aim worth getting for that 30% of grazes converted to crits?

 

For this multiclass setup is biting whip strictly better then draining whip or is the extra focus for more soul annihilations actually comparable?

Continuing on soul annihilation are the extra max focus skills useful as they give more effective upfront burst or is lower focus better thanks to getting off more soul annhilations (assuming you can as I dont know the CDs)?

 

As every melee I used in my PoE1 was a tank what sort of armor should a more offensive melee character be wearing?  Do you start off lighter then switch to heavier once you get armored grace (-25% armor recovery penalty) or is it all light or heavy all the time?

How often would a devoted/soul blade cipher use spells?  Do builds like this use spells often or are they considerably more melee oriented so taking skills such as one handed style would be better in the cipher tree vs the fighter tree?

 

Regarding stat distribution what would you suggest.

 

Thanks for any help in advance!

[samedavis]

I'm leaning towards a Devoted/Soul Blade as well. With DW Style only giving a 15% recovery boost now, the other styles are all (relatively) better. Fighter does have two Full Attack abilities that would benefit from the 2nd weapon

Going to wait and see what unique weapons are available and make a decision then. The singing sword seems like a cool one

I think Biting Whip is better - having an extra 20% damage is huge. With the smaller focus pool you'd probably max it out pretty fast as is.

All the extra focus abilities are good. Assuming they havent changed how it works, when you hit with Annihilation you do weapon damage, gain focus, then drain it all and do raw damage. So you always want to kick it off with less than full focus

I'm not planning to use any cipher spells. you don't get a ton of abilities and all focus will probably go to annihilation


 

[dunehunter]

Dual wielding is a no brainer in beta, but u might probably want to use single weapon in early game if u play on PoTD.

 

I like draining whip better than bittering whip, because even now cipher generate focus faster, it’s still not fast enough without draining whip in early game. But I assume once u get fighter clear the path, u can respec to bittering whip.

[Boeroer]

Biting