The Mighty Seraph - TK Blade DPS Tank

monsterdaddy · September 2013

I've been tinkering with Ego Blades for a long time since my old Isis build. For me, TK Blades had fallen out of favor because I found it to have poor DPS due to energy issues. But I always loved the look and many months later I found a really nice TK tank build that can solo Gravitar with a 3.5K DPS output. I present the mighty Seraph!

(I think he looks pretty cool :biggrin:)

There are 4 DEX and 2 CON R7 mods. All the secondary gear is Vigilante. What is interesting is with 500 DEX I used a Heroic Glove of Offense with a Depleted Uranium Core. Legion Elusiveness and Speed round out the gear.

How can he do so much damage in tank role? The key is lots of DEX with FotT, 3 sources of energy and Brawler spec. Using EBW w/SS is low damage. But it does proc Setup so you make up quite a bit of damage from the 20% base damage boost to EBA.

As with all builds using Brawler spec Setup, attack sequence is key to maximizing DPS. Through trial and error, I found a full combo of EBW, full charge EBA, full charge EBB, repeat to be the best. It's probably due to the fact that you get back to 5 stacks of Ego Leech when it's time to hit EBA again. Also, as soon as the charge is done with EBA, start charging EBB, it will charge during EBA activation time.

EDIT: For times when I need more healing, I switch to full combo EBW, full charge EBA, full combo EBW and tap EBB. This gets more healing at slightly less damage since EBA and tap EBB both benefit from Setup.

Enjoy!

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Seraph

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: The Void
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Boundless Reserves
Level 12: Accurate
Level 15: Ascetic
Level 18: Shooter
Level 21: Daredevil

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade
Level 1: Ego Weaponry (Rank 2, Siphoning Strikes)
Level 6: Ego Reverberation
Level 8: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)
Level 11: Telekinetic Shield (Rank 2, Rank 3, Telekinetic Reinforcement)
Level 14: Ego Blade Breach (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Ego Blade Annihilation (Rank 2, Mental Acuity)
Level 20: Form of the Tempest
Level 23: Masterful Dodge
Level 26: Ascension (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 29: Lock N Load (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Defiance
Level 35: Circle of Primal Dominion (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Void Shift (Emerging Nightmares)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Blazing Speed
Level 35: Fire Flight

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

dorianj13 · September 2013

Is form of the tempest better than mental discipline even though MT gives you the crit chance bonus for ego leech? I've been trying to choose which would go best for my tk blade melee/crit character.

monsterdaddy · September 2013

dorianj13 wrote: »

Is form of the tempest better than mental discipline even though MT gives you the crit chance bonus for ego leech? I've been trying to choose which would go best for my tk blade melee/crit character.

The key to Mental Discipline has always been having a lot of additive damage bonuses to make it worthwhile for its multiplicative damage bonus to work. That really means that you need a very high additive damage offensive passive - ID Mastery, Ego Form, Wotw. Quarry may be too low.

One benefit of Mental Discipline is that you don't need any SS for it to scale with. A drawback is you need adv. pts to rank it up and the biggest one is that it returns no energy. DPS is heavily dependent on energy in ways we may not see due to lag on the energy bar.

So for a tank role, FotT is the obvious choice since there is so little additive damage bonuses. As you can see in my above build, I used 4 DEX R7 mods to boost the stacks of Focus.

So if you can solve your energy issues, consider MD vs.FotT for damage (check your tooltip numbers) otherwise stay with solid FotT.

One other note for FYI, Rush does indeed scale with DEX. My other toon gets 21 energy per second with about 600 DEX.

dorianj13 · September 2013

Thanks man, I think i will give Form of the Tempest a try.

kallethen · September 2013

I find I don't have much trouble for energy when I take advantage of EBA's Annihilation mechanic feeding Ego Reverb. Yes, you do sacrifice the Ego Leech stack at first, but I find it returns quickly between the Annihilation giving them back every couple of seconds on top of whatever you Leech you build off your fighting powers. It's almost like the "Rush" mechanic from the Martial Arts "Dragon's <blank>" powers for me. (Also, I do run in Support role cuz I'm crazy and use Seraphim...)

That said, Form of the Tempest is an awesome form and totally worthwhile on a PSS Dex melee toon. My opinion is to try out both and stick with whichever suits your style better.

monsterdaddy · September 2013

The key difference between Rush and Ego Reverberation is Rush grants energy per second whereas Ego Reverberation is every 3 seconds. To make Ego Blade Annihilation's mechanic worse, the Ego Leech stacks are returned every 2 seconds which could make it a 4 second gap between energy ticks.

kallethen · September 2013

I will not dispute that Rush is superior.

As for Ego Reverb not syncing with Annihilation's Leech return... I honestly didn't notice that. Maybe because I tend to spam EBB right after and that grants Ego Leech too. I probably end up filling in that 4 second gap with it.

The Mighty Seraph - TK Blade DPS Tank

Comments