Much like almost any Psyker, I mostly use Force Swords for Melee. Now I’ve finally gotten sufficient material to consider what Blessings I want for specific loadouts (I took a bit of a Hiatus between November 22 and Patch 13).
Searching the web, a lot of the blessing discussion I’ve found is from last spring or earlier, and thus doesn’t really conform to the current blessing values anymore.
So anyways, I got several Ilisi and Deimos Force Swords (just what is the Obscurus good for, anyways?), usually with some Blessing I actually want to have, like Deflector on my defensive ranged support loadout, or Exorcist for Scrier’s Gaze.
Now I’m pondering adding Uncanny Strike where I can, because I believe it is a great Blessing. But is it?
What is everyone’s opinion on Riposte and Precognition? (Particularly the latter, as I have multiple swords with it and it’s probably what I’d replace. I know it was useless when it was 10%, but 50%+ doesn’t even sound all that weak anymore.)
Those two are hard to test in the Psykanium. Can Bloodthirsty be built around, should I ever find it?
Or does it make no relevant difference in practice?
Imo Uncanny strike is very close to best in slot now on Deimos. My 2 Deimos sword run Uncanny Strike while 1 runs Slaughterer and the other runs shred.
I assume between Precog and Riposte the crit one is good while the finesse one is kind of mid.
On Illisi I run Slaughterer and Executor and it absolutely cuts through everything if you can consistently get melee headshots.
So you would say that different Force Swords would benefit from different blessings?
I’ve always been a bit iffy about Slaughterer. The power bonus is impressive, but it requires kills, meaning I have it least when I need it most, or so I reasoned.
The blade seems to onehit at least two walkers per strike, though I suppose I could do uncharged attacks?
In general yes. Obscurus is useless so I’ll just be comparing Illisi vs Deimos.
While personally I run both I understand where you are coming from. However I would still recommend it on the Illisi as its main attractions is its horde clear. Personally when horde clearing I don’t use the special on it too much, usually just heavy light repeated. This is helpful if I am running a single target focused staff. The charged is best as an opening to an engagement, or fighting mixed flak/elite waves of enemies.
Deimos needs Uncanny Strike to fullfill its role as an armor buster. Slaughterer is good on it as it helps it horde clear by just spamming light attacks. However I’m sure an Uncanny strike paired with 1 of the 2 crit blessings (would not recommend Bloodthirsty on it) would be great for single target dps.
While unfortunately I don’t have Bloodthirsty, it can be built around on the Illisi. You do need to take the wildfire talent for this, and pair it with the blazing spirit blessing (soulfire on critical hits). You initiate the fight with a charged heavy attack, and tha either follow up with a heavy or light attack which will light enemies on fire. You can than either go back into the standard horde clear pattern, or continue the charged attack pattern to clear groups of enemies. With the wildfire talent the Soul fire will spred between enemies and make them easier for you to kill, will get some kill itself, and will begin dealing damage to high value targets mixed in the horde.
Personally I go with Slaughterer IV and Deflector IV on both Illisi and Deimos, and with Deimos also +25% maniacs so I can headshot those muties. They have a bunch of good blessings, that’s true. But ultimately for me those two feel like the most useful.
Deflector is a given. While some may think it a crutch, when you play a lot of T5+ pubs like I do that ability to survive random gunner spawns around you or reposition out of a mistake is extremely useful, and affords so much more aggressive plays in general.
As for Slaughterer, it quickly transforms Deimos from a poor horde tool into a decent one, patching its one big weakness. With Illisi you literally just need to do a single powered attack into a horde to stack it up, and from that point on you’ll cleave through heads like butter. Simple, but it works.
