Blade DPS 100% dependent on Spirit Blade?

So, pretty much the subject says it all. Blade is super fun to play imo. But to have decent DPS in both solo and group content, is Spirit blade 100% necessary? I feel like the Spirit blade activation could have been built into the class mechanic as it takes away a vital skill slot.

I could be wrong however, as I haven’t even been playing it for a month and not at max level yet. What are your opinions on the matter? Is there a DPS build using blade as primary that can be useful without Spirit blade?

You need to form spirit blade as that is the mechanic of blade, otherwise you say bye to a lot of dps. That said there is a blade focus which auto forms the spirit blade when you have it equipped. I belive it’s Sov-Tech. It won’t yield you the highest dps, but it will certainly open up the slot that the active would otherwise take up.

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The blade mechanic gives you a choice – forge your Spirit Blade for extra dps or let it expire for healing (which can be really useful when using blades off-hand).

Sin is right, though. As with most weapons, there’s an extraordinary one that modifies the mechanic to auto-activate Spirit Blade. It drops from the Winter Cache.

SWL Techsword

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Thanks you two, appreciate it. I obviously have that Spirit blade going now but it’ll be cool to get my hands on that weapon someday. Its hard to only pick 2 or 3 more skills at the very most when making a build because there’s a lot of useful skills. That’s the fun in making a good build though, haha.

Glad your enjoying the theorycrafting SWL has to offer! Since it may be up your alley if your into that type of stuff be sure to check out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HVgBeFTbXH0eZ5dJVtzXXm6HyITMHLUyM8avntoPOSI/edit#gid=1352797216 for some overall usefull information but also a list of available weapons and talismans in game. Its mostly up to date.

Regarding blade specifically I have used blade main up until max IP (max gear score) and can at least provide my overall opinion. Blade has the potential to perform quite well in endgame though with a bit more skill involved due to it being melee and have a somewhat more complex mechanic (spirit blade). As mentioned spirit blade is critical to its success, at least fully optimized anywhere from 25-30% of your damage should be coming from spirit blade alone. Soviet Techsword is an amazing choice as it greatly simplifies the mechanic, due note however that the only benefit it provides is an extra active (which is not a bad thing) another important thing to note is while it converts chi to spirit blade attacks at a 1:1 ratio you can convert at a 5:6 ratio manually not a massive advantage but can be an edge. Two other popular choices purely for dps output are Blade of the Seventh Son (significant spirit blade damage boost) and Dark Precipice (for its generally useful free passives).

Aside from that build wise your only truely useful elite will be Supreme Harmony. The other two are a bit lackluster in comparison so if your at that point consider a cooldown reduction signet for your head tali.

Also when choosing a weapon for the purpose of dps you will be choosing between Havoc and Energy. I have always sided for Energy but it is tailored to my final blade setup. The reason being is that although Blade is not an energy demanding weapon starting out it becomes such in late game. Mostly due to its Elite being up every 11-13 seconds and the use of Swallow Cut instead of Tsunami. You want to avoid using basics for maximum DPS because sprit blade damage scale higher on power abilities then basics.

Theirs more I could say but don’t really want an information overload. Blade is not the highest DPS weapon but its one that several players have really enjoyed playing so you should be able to find good advice from many people.

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Wow, thanks a bunch Drenneth. I’ll take a lot of this information to heart. Currently for a big chunk of damage I wait until I have the Spirit blade ready to go, then ill impale spirit to make use of its expose debuff. I’ve used dancing blade as my primary source of dps. I started as an assassin and primarily use chain lightning (buffed with its passive upgrade) for group damage. I could easily do some searching online for optimum builds but until I am looking to do the hardest content available, I’ve been enjoying coming up with my own little combos.

Ill mess around with Supreme Harmony some more as I haven’t done much with it since I unlocked it. I did enjoy Swallow cut for quite a while and maybe I’ll use some Tsunami for some big hits. Really appreciate the advice. Thanks again!

Hey! I hope you have checked out blade in beta. Spirit Blade will now be built in and no ability slot wasted! Something we all wanted.

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I am not in the test, and never used blade (in swl :slight_smile: ) for other than secondary.
But for that very reason the question occurs: if SB is automatic, what happens with the self-heal ticks which is a really nice feature with an off-hand blade? Can you maybe turn off that automatic SB forge?

That self heal’s being removed entirely. It is way too strong a heal for the new system, (which is a pity,) which is why it’s being changed in the tanking & healing balance, rather than being a DPS balance change.

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If I understand correctly one of the key goals in the redesign of Blade was to stop it being a heal tool.

The notes relating to it are in the middle of the linked post, but the points relating to the automatic forging are:

  • On reaching 5 Chi, Spirit Blade now automatically forges with a duration of 5 attacks. If your Spirit Blade is already forged, 5 attacks are added to it. The diminishing returns are gone.
  • Chi is no longer lost when the Spirit Blade shatters.
  • Basic abilities have a reduced chance to generate Chi.
  • Power, Elite, and Special abilities have an increased chance to generate Chi.

The weapons themselves have been redesigned to function in parallel with the changes. For example:

Soviet Techsword

  • Whenever you hit with a Blade ability, you deal 0.25CP extra damage. Whenever you hit with a non-Blade ability, you have an 18% chance to generate 1 Chi.