A new challenge...

theravenforce · July 2013

..at least for me...

I am having a lot of fun levelling my dual blade ninja Asura Denshai, I was thinking of re making one of my level 40s (ShadowAssassin) into a single blade toon like I had intended her to be from the start.

All I'd really like is perhaps advice on Single Blade Power set, I'm not very familiar with it, but from what I have observed...

Strength and Dexterity play an important role
Bleed Mechanic is the primary mechanic of Single Blade, alongside rupturing techniques

So all you single blade experts (*pokes purin and blademaster* :biggrin:) I'd love your advice ^_^

Thanks in advance (I'll probably post a build based on my shaky knowledge soon)

theravenforce · July 2013

Just a thrown together build, doesn't even have an energy unlock lol, I think the name of the build is very apt

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Help me T_T

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Strength (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Martial Focus
Level 9: Physical Conditioning
Level 12: Acrobat
Level 15: Enduring
Level 18: Agile
Level 21: Mighty

Powers:
Level 1: Reaper's Touch
Level 1: Reaper's Caress (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 8: Way of the Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Scything Blade (Swallowtail Cut)
Level 14: Form of the Swordsman
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Reaper's Embrace (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Parry (The Elusive Monk)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 35: Dragon's Bite (Rank 2, Cull the Weak)
Level 38: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2)
Level 35: Cape Glide (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Strength: Swole (2/3)
Strength: Physical Peak (3/3)
Strength: Brutality (1/2)
Strength: Juggernaut (2/3)
Strength: Overpower (2/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (1/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (1/3)
Brawler: No Escape (1/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Finishing Blow (1/3)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Brawler: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Strength Mastery (1/1)

smoochan · July 2013

Be cool and go Dexterity PSS instead. Strength is played out :P Also drop Constitution for an energy stat.

DPS builds are a lot more fun if they're super squishy and you have to kill them before they kill you. Especially Single Blade with its sick burst.

sparkrocker · July 2013

Go with everybody's favorite melee combo! Dex/Con/Int with Form of the Tempest and Molecular self assembly. Mix in your passive of choice.

purin1 · July 2013

theravenforce wrote: »

So all you single blade experts (*pokes purin and blademaster* :biggrin:) I'd love your advice ^_^

*Blinks*

I believe the correct expression would be "crazy enough to try Single Blade in PvP" in my case, but I'm flattered.

I normally don't like to give advice on builds nowadays since I only wind up making the build look like mine, so I'll try to be unbiased right here:

Smooch's suggestion of going Dex PSS is definitely worth taking a look at. It's pretty much the superior choice over Strength if you want to DPS in PvE due to its inherent crit chance and its spec tree's extra crit severity. Going with Dex PSS would also synergize more well with Form of the Swordsman and Parry/Elusive Monk.

Energy will definitely be an issue. You've got a few options on how you can approach it, and I'm sure you're aware of each one but I'll list them all anyway.

-Drop CON as a superstat and swap it out for REC or END. I'd also recommend INT, but the lack of an energy unlock (i. e. MSA) stops me. This leads me to the next point

-Swap out a power for an energy unlock and pick up the corresponding superstat that it scales with. Dropping Dex would be a direct loss to DPS, dropping CON would of course give up some survivability, and dropping Str would give up some knock resistance and melee damage (This may not be as bad as it seems since you're probably already getting hit by diminishing returns from Way of the Warrior and the Brawler role if you intend on using it).

-You can just deal with your current superstats and use your energy builder when needed if you want to keep maximum damage from Dex and Str and you don't want to drop CON. Though there is the argument that you'd have more dps if you're not using your EB as much with an energy-related SS. Your call.
-I'm probably forgetting a few things as far as energy management goes, so be sure to wait on someone else's opinion on that. And I just noticed you could frequently charge Dragon's Bite for the Rush buff - your choice if you want to keep it.

Scything Blade and Swallowtail Cut: I'm not too partial to this power, especially its advantage. I prefer powers that stack bleeds over this one, but Reaper's Caress is sadly the only power within the Single Blade set and it doesn't do as good of a job compared to other powers. (Though I still love Caress as a power - it provides ridiculous dps with DEX as a PSS, so its slower bleed build-up is made up for). And about Swallowtail Cut, it makes the power useless in my opinion since I cannot seem to get the Swallowtail Cut Bleed to rupture. I can't confirm this, so don't hold your breath on that.

BCR: I don't like it because of its 10% damage loss. It can be another way of proccing MSA if you take it and it could boost your survivability if you drop CON, though. Since you have the advantage on it, picking up Resurgence can be helpful.

Dragon's Bite: Many people don't like it since it doesn't apply bleeds and its advantage isn't really worth it. You can choose to keep it solely for the Rush buff, but there are better sources of energy in my opinion, and the best way of DPS within the Single Blade set is Scything Blade-> Reaper's Caress-> Reaper's Embrace in my experience.

You don't have an AoE except for Scything Blade. I don't have one on my build and I still do fine in PvE, but it'd be nice to have one.

If the build is mainly for PvE, I'd go DEX/CON/INT, pick up MSA, drop BCR, drop Dragon's Bite, and pick up Resurgence.But that's my opinion, don't listen to me. :P

theravenforce · July 2013

purin1 wrote: »

*Blinks*

I believe the correct expression would be "crazy enough to try Single Blade in PvP" in my case, but I'm flattered....

*proceeds to type a chunk of helpful advice* >_> :biggrin:

As for the build, ShadowAssassin is DEX/CON/INT so that is extremely convenient!

As for specs...I am not too sure what I should be looking at... would this be an OK set up?

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Brush It Off (1/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (1/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (2/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (1/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (1/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (1/3)
Brawler: No Escape (1/3)
Brawler: Penetrating Strikes (2/2)
Brawler: Ruthless (2/2)
Brawler: Finishing Blow (1/3)
Brawler: Setup (2/2)
Brawler: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

Personally never had to use Brawler Specs so I'm a bit iffy on that...any advice?

cyrone · July 2013

Recovery Primary! Do eet!

purin1 · July 2013

Here's an example of what I'd do for PvE, most people, including me, use the Vindicator/Guardian setup:

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (2/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Tenacious (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

theravenforce · July 2013

I tried that set up with a tiny change and RE hits for a decent 21k so that's all good :biggrin:

I think it will take me a while to get used to focusing on one target at a time, most if not all of my toons take on multiple groups at a time.

I'll get back to practicing hehe!

Thank you for your assistance :biggrin:

chalupaoffury · July 2013

You can not, in fact, rupture the swallowtail cut bleed. It's a different sort of bleed that doesn't play into these mechanics. IMO, that makes it a vaguely worthless advantage, since you really want to be just flying in there and getting as many bleeds as you can, as fast as possible. Granted, it will apply the normal bleed on any alert bosses or gravitar, but so does the normal power anyway.

smoochan · July 2013

The saddest part is, the best dps you can get is just spamming Reaper's Embrace over and over. I've tested it out, and all the other things you use to stack bleeds + the rupture damage don't actually equal more dps than if you had just used Reapers Embrace in place of all those other powers in your "rotation".

I still stubbornly use other powers on my Reapers Embrace character... because fun. :mad:

rstzed · July 2013

I like to use recital targeting with single blade. I can move around quickly applying STC to all the mobs then come back around with other attacks. I like to follow up STC with Reaper's Caress with Cleaving Strikes for the aoe effect.

Unknown · July 2013

This content has been removed.

theravenforce · July 2013

chalupaoffury wrote: »

You can not, in fact, rupture the swallowtail cut bleed. It's a different sort of bleed that doesn't play into these mechanics. IMO, that makes it a vaguely worthless advantage, since you really want to be just flying in there and getting as many bleeds as you can, as fast as possible. Granted, it will apply the normal bleed on any alert bosses or gravitar, but so does the normal power anyway.

Yeah, it's a pity, but meh, Reaper's Caress seems to do some really odd damage, but even with my build spec'd for less damage I cannot get targets to stay alive long enough to rupture lol.

I was thinking though...would these powers work well with Night Warrior vs WoTW?

I am currently using this set up:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: ShadowAssassin

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Glacier
Level 6: Agile
Level 9: Enduring
Level 12: Brilliant
Level 15: Acrobat
Level 18: Coordinated
Level 21: Healthy Mind

Powers:
Level 1: Reaper's Touch
Level 1: Reaper's Caress (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge
Level 8: Way of the Warrior (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Scything Blade (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Form of the Swordsman
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Reaper's Embrace (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Parry (The Elusive Monk)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 35: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 38: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2, Sleight of Mind)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2)
Level 35: Cape Glide (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Dexterity: Evasion (1/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Dexterity: Expose Weakness (1/2)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (1/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (1/2)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (1/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Upper Hand (1/3)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

I was thinking since my theme/ name implies someone striking from the shadows, if invisibility (Night Warrior Passive) would work just as well?

So really its a question of NW vs WoTW...

Unknown · July 2013

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theravenforce · July 2013

Decided to stick with WoTW since its boost far outstrips NW. Thanks to all who helped me

smoochan · July 2013

Pure numbers, yeah, WoTW wins out. Fun-wise, Night Warrior wins. One-shotting things with full charge Reapers Embrace out of stealth is neat. Having to make sure to rupture bleeds before you return to stealth is neat. Tagging a whole group with bleeds with full charged Scything from stealth then one-shotting everything with Reapers Embrace is neat.

But yeah, if you just wanna dps stuff while healing yourself, WotW is better.

Unknown · July 2013

This content has been removed.

tdits · August 2013

cyrone wrote: »

Recovery Primary! Do eet!

I already did that. >_> Are you avoiding my threads because I gave up on my Chainsaw Gauntlet PFF toon? I'm sorry, I wont do it again.

A new challenge...

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