Any suggestions for "Spellblade" type builds?

[redbeard887]

I've been playing this game for a pretty long time, and I have a pretty good understanding of most of the stat categories and game mechanics, but I've never really gone too far off the beaten path with my player character's "class". I was wondering if anybody had much experience mixing classes, specifically magic and weapon based ones. I've tried this a little in the past, and I usually just wind up as a black mage holding a sword instead of a staff. I've got a few ideas for potential builds (or at least the start of some builds) that I'm going to list, if anyone has suggestions for how to expand upon them, or entire other builds, I'd appreciate the feedback.

1. Arcane Warrior
base class: Warrior or Black mage
primary stats: Strength, Willpower, and Agility (maybe Cunning)
possible powers: charge weapon, power wave, (I'm not really sure whether to prioritize weapon or spell powers honestly)
possible items: Sanctified Gladius, Flame Tongue
team role: Pure damage dealer. High attack power and spell power, remaining points in agility for accuracy or cunning for crits.

2. Spell Thief
base class: Thief
primary stats: Agility, Willpower, cunning
possible powers: Charge Weapon, Blue Flame blade, smite evil, (maybe spells/abilities that inflict debuffs to enable twist the knife)
possible items: dawnsword, sanc glad, chrysanthemum petal, kunai
team role: Mainly damage, but also potentially an enemy debuffer.

3. Mage Tank
base class: Warrior
primary stats: Willpower, Toughness, (Strength or Presence)
possible powers: Thunderbrand, Bark Skin, Leech, Vitality reap, any summon powers
possible items: flame tongue, shield of absorption, any armor that boosts leadership
team role: Tank, deal magic damage, and possibly use leadership to boost allies and summons (this build feels scattered, but thunderbrand seems like a cool power, and I've been trying to find a home for it. Also some pieces of heavy armor boost leadership, so I thought if we're playing a tank, we might as well use that bonus.)

Again, are just some general thoughts, so if anyone has ideas or experience playing around with these things, please let me know.

 

[Crafty]

My preferred build is pretty similar to the Arcane Warrior build you've described. A big thing to watch out for is debuffs - there aren't that enemies that can silence or disarm, but when either of those will lock you down, they are a problem. I've found dastardly trick as an encounter power is quite good, since it can disrupt enemies pretty effectively. It might have been patched, but last I checked you could use charge weapon when disarmed, allowing for some light AOE damage, though it's probably not as useful now that willpower has been rolled into health and you can tease to deal damage while disarmed instead.

 

[redbeard887]

My preferred build is pretty similar to the Arcane Warrior build you've described. A big thing to watch out for is debuffs - there aren't that enemies that can silence or disarm, but when either of those will lock you down, they are a problem. I've found dastardly trick as an encounter power is quite good, since it can disrupt enemies pretty effectively. It might have been patched, but last I checked you could use charge weapon when disarmed, allowing for some light AOE damage, though it's probably not as useful now that willpower has been rolled into health and you can tease to deal damage while disarmed instead.

I think the game classifies charge weapon as a "miscellaneous power" rather than a weapon power, so it's possibly meant to be immune to disarm (even though that seems counterintuitive).

With your build do you wind use more spell powers or weapon powers? I've never really been sure if charge weapon applies the spell power bonus damage to weapon powers, or only normal attacks.

 

[WolframL]

Charge Weapon is tagged as a Spell because you're using magic to enhance your weapon, the damage boost is derived from your Spellpower and it's affected by Silenced rather than Disarmed. The bonus is applied to normal attacks and Weapon-tagged Powers.

 

[Crafty]

I think the game classifies charge weapon as a "miscellaneous power" rather than a weapon power, so it's possibly meant to be immune to disarm (even though that seems counterintuitive).

With your build do you wind use more spell powers or weapon powers? I've never really been sure if charge weapon applies the spell power bonus damage to weapon powers, or only normal attacks.

I tend to have Cleave for groups and Power Wave for single targets.

 

[Tony_Redgrave]

I use a variation of the first option, but its more of a Warrior that happens to use Weapon Spells.
Class: Warrior
Stats: Strength, Willpower, Agility (Actually split a little between Agility and Cunning)
Powers: Charge Weapon, Power Wave, Smite Evil, Steady Strike (Can use Cleave instead)
Weapon: Galon's Griefmaker (I like two-handed swords and it has high armour pen)

Hope we get more Weapon Spells in the future.

 

[Baggrin]

1. Arcane Warrior

Base class: In my opinion, a warrior is much more suitable for the role of the basis for a warrior-mage.

Primary stats: Strength, Willpower, and Agility are fine, I wouldn't say the same about Cunning. If we talk about the fourth stat that you will keep at the maximum with Boon, then I would rather suggest Presence. By the way, due to the presence of Boons, the option Strength, Agility, Presence plus Boon Willpower for the whole group at once (Blessing from Sanders, Wine in the Winter City or Bento Box from Kiyoko) is much better.

Possible powers:
Charge Weapon is a really powerful buff, I would even say that no attack in this slot can compare in usefulness with this super buff. So if you want to consider some other option, it will only be Equilibrium (immunity to disarm and knockdown).
Cleave as an AoE attack, or Crowd Control if you decide to use ranged weapon. You can also try using Deadly Shadow (Encounter slot) as an AoE attack, because in any case, with a high probability you only need one AoE attack per battle.
Celestial Smite or Lightning Fist as an alternative attack, used in case of disarmament or resistance of the enemy to your normal physical attack.
Any powerful single-target attack, preferably with an accuracy bonus (according to my subjective feelings after version 0.5.0, the number of misses has increased), Smite Evil is fine, but it's up to you.
Ultimate? I rarely use them, but in my opinion Unbreakable is better than any other option for this build.

Possible items:
Sanctified Gladius is ok, Flame Tongue fits worse in my opinion and is available too late. As possible alternatives, I would suggest Metal Wand (ranged, so you will need to choose the attacking Powers among the ranged ones, not the melee ones) or Control Rod.
As an offhand, I would suggest a shield (Tower Shield or Wicker Shield) or a Catalyst (preferably with an accuracy bonus, but Fire Jade or Shield Orb is also fine). A possible option would be to boost your damage by wielding a Kunai in your left hand (an amazing boost against all bleed-capable enemies, especially with the recent healing nerf), but I would argue that with a Charge Weapon, this is overkill.
Another possible option would be to choose a two-handed weapon, but I haven't used it much at all and haven't used it at all since patch 0.5.0 in particular, so I'm not sure about the effectiveness of this option.
Armor. In my opinion, physical protection is the priority, after all, no spell, no Tease skill will hit you as hard as a two-handed weapon can.
Therefore, I advise either Mail Cuirass (heavy armor) or Lamellar Armor (light armor). Royal Leathers? Personally, I don't respect this armor due to the lack of resistance to physical damage (i.e. Crushing and Penetrating) and debuffs (i.e. Physical).
Continuing on the topic of physical damage resistance, I suggest a Fluffy Scarf around neck and Cloak of Winter or Seaweave Shaman's Cape (Sundered immunity) on the shoulders.
The Helm of Heroes and the Champion's Belt will increase your resistances once more (yeah, I really love resistances) and increase your damage output (for you physical strength, the rest of the group both physical and magical).
Rings? Guldring, Lucky Strike, Mare's Ring... Choose two of the three.
Gloves of Giant Strength or Royal Gloves, Iron Clogs or Thigh High Leather Boots or Winged Sabatons.

Companions: One of the companions is a healer (after the Winter City of Etheryn in her Royal Attire is preferable to Cait), the second companion is either a damage dealer or support of some kind.

2. Spell Thief

My version of the dual thief doesn't exactly fit your needs, but...

Base class: Thief

Primary stats: Like for a warrior.

Possible powers: As far as I know, Sneak Attack is usually preferred for At-Will slot, but personally I advise you to choose Equilibrium.
Celestial Smite for enemies with high resistance to physical damage.
Cleave as an AoE attack, or Crowd Control if you decide to use ranged weapon.
Death Shadow as an AoE attack + debuff (plus Obscurement) that you will start the fight.
Ultimate? I rarely use them, but in my opinion Unbreakable is better than any other option for this build.

Possible items: Any light weapon of your choice in your main hand, Kunai as an offhand weapon.
The logic for choosing other equipment is indicated above, just exclude heavy items from there (Everblossom Hood can be worn as a helmet, but I prefer Helm of Heroes even for a thief).

Companions: One of the companions is a healer (after the Winter City of Etheryn in her Royal Attire is preferable to Cait), the second companion is either a damage dealer or support of some kind.
I would say that the best option for the thief would be to choose the third character Winter Knight Brint with his decent damage and AoE Frigid status, but this is a rather late option, which also does not have the highest damage in the Rift, where a lot of enemies have frost resistance.

3. Mage Tank

Here I can't tell you anything, I found the effectiveness of tanks not worthy of attention, therefore I neglected this aspect of the game.

 

[Zackflame]

Mine is a lightning and holy warrior type with a balance between spellpower and Attack power while wearing little to no heavy gear to gain the 25+ attack power perk.

Base class: warrior.

Stats: strength, willpower, ability.

Main weapon: pure dawnsword or control rod.

Side weapon: bull totem

Armor: tiren vestment.

Neck: bronze pauldrons or cloak of the deep.

Head: Titanic hat(the one Berry gives you).

Belt: champions belt.

Hands:glove of gaints.

Feet: leather boots.

Rings: rings of Fortune and wizard ring.

Powers:thunderbrand or charge weapon, leaping bolt,arc Carmon or celestial smite, smite evil and assassination.

Hope this helps you with what type of spellblade you want to make.

 

[redbeard887]

Base class: In my opinion, a warrior is much more suitable for the role of the basis for a warrior-mage.

Primary stats: Strength, Willpower, and Agility are fine, I wouldn't say the same about Cunning. If we talk about the fourth stat that you will keep at the maximum with Boon, then I would rather suggest Presence. By the way, due to the presence of Boons, the option Strength, Agility, Presence plus Boon Willpower for the whole group at once (Blessing from Sanders, Wine in the Winter City or Bento Box from Kiyoko) is much better.

Possible powers:
Charge Weapon is a really powerful buff, I would even say that no attack in this slot can compare in usefulness with this super buff. So if you want to consider some other option, it will only be Equilibrium (immunity to disarm and knockdown).
Cleave as an AoE attack, or Crowd Control if you decide to use ranged weapon. You can also try using Deadly Shadow (Encounter slot) as an AoE attack, because in any case, with a high probability you only need one AoE attack per battle.
Celestial Smite or Lightning Fist as an alternative attack, used in case of disarmament or resistance of the enemy to your normal physical attack.
Any powerful single-target attack, preferably with an accuracy bonus (according to my subjective feelings after version 0.5.0, the number of misses has increased), Smite Evil is fine, but it's up to you.
Ultimate? I rarely use them, but in my opinion Unbreakable is better than any other option for this build.

Possible items:
Sanctified Gladius is ok, Flame Tongue fits worse in my opinion and is available too late. As possible alternatives, I would suggest Metal Wand (ranged, so you will need to choose the attacking Powers among the ranged ones, not the melee ones) or Control Rod.
As an offhand, I would suggest a shield (Tower Shield or Wicker Shield) or a Catalyst (preferably with an accuracy bonus, but Fire Jade or Shield Orb is also fine). A possible option would be to boost your damage by wielding a Kunai in your left hand (an amazing boost against all bleed-capable enemies, especially with the recent healing nerf), but I would argue that with a Charge Weapon, this is overkill.
Another possible option would be to choose a two-handed weapon, but I haven't used it much at all and haven't used it at all since patch 0.5.0 in particular, so I'm not sure about the effectiveness of this option.
Armor. In my opinion, physical protection is the priority, after all, no spell, no Tease skill will hit you as hard as a two-handed weapon can.
Therefore, I advise either Mail Cuirass (heavy armor) or Lamellar Armor (light armor). Royal Leathers? Personally, I don't respect this armor due to the lack of resistance to physical damage (i.e. Crushing and Penetrating) and debuffs (i.e. Physical).
Continuing on the topic of physical damage resistance, I suggest a Fluffy Scarf around neck and Cloak of Winter or Seaweave Shaman's Cape (Sundered immunity) on the shoulders.
The Helm of Heroes and the Champion's Belt will increase your resistances once more (yeah, I really love resistances) and increase your damage output (for you physical strength, the rest of the group both physical and magical).
Rings? Guldring, Lucky Strike, Mare's Ring... Choose two of the three.
Gloves of Giant Strength or Royal Gloves, Iron Clogs or Thigh High Leather Boots or Winged Sabatons.

Companions: One of the companions is a healer (after the Winter City of Etheryn in her Royal Attire is preferable to Cait), the second companion is either a damage dealer or support of some kind.

Those are some good suggestions, thanks! I'll try changing the stats and class of an existing character I have to try that build out on an alternate save.

And out of curiosity, do you know what the "catalyst" weapon tag does? I know they're meant to be used by casters, but most other weapon tags have a tangible effect on what the item can or can't do. I'm not sure what that effect is on catalysts.

 

[redbeard887]

Powers:thunderbrand or charge weapon, leaping bolt,arc Carmon or celestial smite, smite evil and assassination.

Hope this helps you with what type of spellblade you want to make.

Do you run into problems managing enemy aggression using Thunderbrand on a character without much armor? I like the idea of Thunderbrand, but it generates high threat, which is something I usually try to avoid on characters who aren't meant to be tanks.

 

[Zackflame]

Do you run into problems managing enemy aggression using Thunderbrand on a character without much armor? I like the idea of Thunderbrand, but it generates high threat, which is something I usually try to avoid on characters who aren't meant to be tanks.

I solve that problem by having cait equip the witch set or have some healing items on hand. But normally I deal with the enemies by using aoe attacks first before relying on thunderbrand to finish off enemies who are on the verge of death.

 

[Baggrin]

I'll try changing the stats and class of an existing character I have to try that build out on an alternate save.

Ideally, it would be worth creating a new character (after all, as you can see, starting bonuses are unchangeble) with a starting bonus of +3 to Agility or +3 to Presence or +2 to Strength and +1 to Agility.
But this is ideal, in fact, the character should be strong enough without it.

And out of curiosity, do you know what the "catalyst" weapon tag does?

Yes, I know.
Tell me, didn't you think it was stupid that +10 crit on Sanctified Gladius would help your charmer taunt enemies more effectively? Or that Taeleeran Longbow will help your spells hit and crit more often?
That's it, weapon crit and accuracy bonuses only affect weapon attacks. It is in order for bonuses on a weapon (and, as I understand it, an offhand item) to affect not only a normal attack, but also a spell that the weapon tag "Catalyst" is required.

 

[redbeard887]

Ideally, it would be worth creating a new character (after all, as you can see, starting bonuses are unchangeble) with a starting bonus of +3 to Agility or +3 to Presence or +2 to Strength and +1 to Agility.
But this is ideal, in fact, the character should be strong enough without it.

I'm not too concerned with having everything perfectly optimized. I'm mostly trying to put together these builds for flavor and roleplaying purposes, but I want them to still be powerful enough to clear tougher content. Thanks for the help.