Secret World Legends SWL Schmidy's Guide to Blade DPS
- Note: see the Patch section for changes to Blade abilities and weapons
Whenever you hit with a Blade ability you have a 50% chance to generate Chi. When you have accumulated 5 Chi you have 5 seconds to consume them and cast the Blade Special ability “Spirit Blade”. “Spirit Blade” grants a beneficial effect that causes your Blade attacks to deal additional damage, based on your Combat Power.
The duration of the beneficial effect provided by “Spirit Blade” can be increased by recasting the ability to consume new Chi. 1 Chi increases the duration by .5 seconds, 2 Chi by 1 seconds, 3 Chi by 2 seconds, 4 Chi by 4 seconds, and 5 Chi by 6 seconds.
If you do not or cannot cast “Spirit Blade” within 5 seconds of gaining 5 Chi you will consume all Chi and gain a heal over time effect that lasts 3 seconds and heals you for 7% of your maximum hit points each second.
Chi does not decay.
Active
Method[]
Flowing Strike[]
3 Energy. Basic. "Your blade moves like flowing water, striking your target for 9 physical damage. "
Hurricane[]
3 energy. Point blank area of effect "Affects up to 6 enemies in a 5 metre radius around you. Your blade cuts through the air creating gale force winds which deal 10 physical damage to nearby enemies. "
Hone[]
4 energy. Self. "Hone your blade and spirit to gain 2 Blade Energy and cause your Blade attacks to have an additional 20% chance to generate Chi. "
Tsunami[]
5 energy. Channelled Dash. "Channelled: Every 0.5 seconds for 2.5 seconds. Move as an unrelenting tsunami, drowning your target under the waves of your attacks, each dealing 8 physical damage. "
Dancing Blade[]
4 energy. Channelled Target. "Channelled: Every 0.5 seconds for 2.5 seconds. Your blade dances through the air, cutting at your target's spirit dealing 7 physical damage. As you grasp your blade the dance comes to a deadly end, dealing 28 physical damage. This ability has a 10 metre range. "
Balance[]
Spirit Blade[]
5 energy. Self. "When your Spirit Blade is shattered: Requires and consumes 5 Chi. Harness your Chi to forge your Spirit Blade. For the next 10 seconds all of your Blade attacks deal an additional 8 physical damage.
When your Spirit Blade is forged: Requires at least 1 Chi and consumes all Chi. Gather your Chi to reforge your Spirit Blade, increasing the duration of your Spirit Blade. The amount of time gained increases with the amount of Chi consumed. Note: All Chi is lost when your Spirit Blade shatters. "
Soothing Spring[]
2 energy. Self. "Your energy replenishes you like a soothing spring. You are instantly healed for 11.5% of your health and cleansed of 1 detrimental effect. You also gain a beneficial effect which restores 1.5% of your health and cleanses 1 detrimental effect every 0.5 seconds for 6 seconds. "
Snake's Bite[]
2 energy. Target. "Strike your target with the pommel of your blade, stunning them for 3 seconds. You immediately perform a follow up slash dealing 22 physical damage. "
Rushing River[]
2 energy. Column Dash. "Dash forward 10 metres, affecting up to 6 enemies in a 6 metre wide column along the way. Rush through your enemies like the raging rapids dealing 10 physical damage and slowing their movement. "
Supreme Harmony[]
4 energy. Self. "Achieve complete harmony of body, mind, spirit, and blade for 8 seconds. During this time all of your Blade attacks deal 23% more damage and restore 1.5% of your health. In addition, your movement speed is increased by 20%. Upon activation, you are cleansed of all detrimental effects. "
Technique[]
Swallow Cut[]
3 energy. Target. "Perform a quick and precise strike with your blade dealing 19 physical damage. "
Crescent Fang[]
1 energy. Point blank area of effect "Affects up to 6 enemies in a 5 metre radius around you. Cut a crescent-shaped arc in front of you with your blade dealing 5 physical damage to nearby enemies. "
Tempest[]
5 energy. Point blank area of effect "Affects up to 6 enemies in a 5 metre radius around you. Unleash a storm of blades around you dealing 9 physical damage to nearby enemies. A whirling vortex is left in the wake of the blade-storm which deals 1 physical damage every 0.5 seconds for 5 seconds to enemies standing in the area. "
Impale Spirit / Exhume Spirit[]
2 energy. Target. "Impale Spirit: Impale your target with a spirit-forged blade dealing 5 physical damage and slowing its movement. The wound left by the blade lingers on, dealing 3 physical damage every second for 5 seconds. This ability has a 10 metre range. Becomes Exhume Spirit for 5 seconds on a successful hit.
Exhume Spirit: Slice the air in front of you creating a whirlwind that seeks out the enemy you had impaled. The whirlwind erupts into a violent maelstrom upon reaching its target dealing 7 physical damage to the target and nearby enemies. "
Typhoon[]
4 energy. Point blank area of effect "Affects up to 6 enemies in a 5 metre radius around you. Embody the destructive nature of a typhoon, lashing out at nearby targets with your blade dealing 10 physical damage and stunning them for 1 second. Like the crushing waves that follow a typhoon, you increase your Blade damage by 6% for each affected enemy, up to a maximum of 30%. This effect lasts 6 seconds. "
Passive[]
Clairvoyance[]
You have sharpened your senses such that you are able to guard yourself preemptively from danger. Whenever you gain a heal over time effect from Chi Overflow, Soothing Spring, or Immortal Spirit you also gain a barrier that absorbs 100% of incoming damage and dissipates after absorbing damage equal to 12.5% of your maximum health. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.
Deluge[]
Striking enemies with your Spirit Blade builds up power inside of your Blade. Every sixth hit with Spirit Blade active unleashes a flood of power around you dealing 3 physical damage to nearby enemies.
Draw Sword, Draw Blood[]
When you draw your Blade it thirsts to spill blood before being sheathed. Whenever you enter combat, your next 3 Blade attacks deal 20% more damage. While in combat, you gain 1 use of this bonus effect every 10 seconds.
Eye of the Storm[]
Your Hurricane rages around you, battering your foes with every other hit of this ability for an additional 3 physical damage.
Focused Breathing[]
You slow your breathing and focus your mind while in combat allowing you to generate 1 Chi every 9 seconds.
Hardened Blade[]
Your Swallow Cut tempers and hardens your Spirit Blade. Whenever you hit an enemy with ""Swallow Cut"" you have a 30% chance to not consume an attack from your Spirit Blade.
Immortal Spirit[]
Whenever you gain Chi you replenish your spirit, restoring 1% of your health every second for 3 seconds.
Keen Edge[]
You "Hone" your blade to a razor sharp edge, increasing your Crit Power with Blade abilities while "Hone" is active by 40%.
Master's Focus[]
When you gain Chi, you focus your senses reducing the remaining recharge time of Supreme Harmony by 5%.
Masterpiece[]
Your forging technique for your Spirit Blade is without blemish or imperfection, causing "Spirit Blade" to deal 17% more damage.
Measure Twice, Cut Once[]
Each cut of your Blade is a measured and precise action. While in combat, if you have not generated Chi in the past 4.5 seconds, your next Blade attack will generate 1 Chi in addition to the normal Chi gain chance.
Meditate[]
You meditate on the essence of a Soothing Spring. Each time the heal over time effect restores your health, you have an 18% chance to gain 1 Chi.
Resonance[]
Your spirit resonates strongly with your Blade. Whenever you gain Chi, your next Blade attack deals an additional 3 physical damage.
Reversal[]
Whenever you interrupt an enemy's attack with Snake's Bite, you reverse the flow of harmful energy and gain 2 Chi. You also direct some of the energy back at your target dealing an additional 2 physical damage.
Soulforged Blade[]
Your Dancing Blade harnesses your soul and the soul of your foe and coalesces into a Spirit Blade upon completion which lasts for 3 attacks. If you have already forged your Spirit Blade, the number of attacks remaining is increased by 3.
Storm Surge[]
The waves of your Tsunami swell whenever Chi is generated, dealing an additional 4 physical damage to the target.
Sunder Spirit[]
Your Exhume Spirit tears at the spirit energy of your foes, causing all affected enemies to be dealt 4 physical damage every second for 5 seconds.
Sweeping Slice[]
You have learned techniques for handling multiple enemies with your Blade. Whenever you hit 2 or more enemies with a single Blade ability you deal an additional 2 physical damage to nearby enemies.
Torrent[]
The waves of your Typhoon come crashing down on your foes with unrelenting force, increasing the damage bonus for each target hit by "Typhoon" to 9.3% up to a maximum of 46.5%.
Warrior's Spirit[]
Your unyielding warrior spirit endures on even as your Spirit Blade shatters. Whenever your Spirit Blade shatters, you gain 1 Chi and deal 5 physical damage to nearby enemies.
Waterfall[]
Your Rushing River cascades like a waterfall into a new flow. If you damage an enemy with "Rushing River" you are able to activate "Rushing River" a second time within 5 seconds. The damage of this second activation is increased to 26 physical damage.
Whirlwind[]
You harness the power of the wind while your Tempest blows furiously around you. While you are inside of the ground area of your ""Tempest"", your Blade attacks deal an additional 2 physical damage to the target and nearby enemies. "
Patch[]
From https://www.secretworldlegends.com/2020/10/01/dungeon-and-raid-rebalance-patch-notes/ :
Preface:
- This update is making some significant changes to Blade. This is not a DPS or damage dealer balance pass, but a pass to address a potential self healing problem by using Blade as a tanking offhand.
- The original design of Blade intended for it to be a viable tanking off-hand, but did not fully accomplish this primarily due to lacking proper threat generation.
- The redesign of tanks has pushed them away from self healing, which means that Blade and its numerous healing effects is no longer an appropriate pairing for tanks.
- A wide number of changes were made during this pass: some directly addressing the above concerns, some for quality of life, and some because they were quick and easy to get in while making the aforementioned changes.
- Mechanic: Spirit Blade
- 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.
- This fixes a scaling issue where at higher Energy generation, Blade’s mechanic did not scale on the same curve as other weapons like Assault Rifle or Blood Magic.
- The damage dealt by Spirit Blade has been adjusted to be in line with the change in Chi generation and Spirit Blade attack generation from Chi.
- A number of passives that interact with Spirit Blade have had a balance pass to bring them in line with the new Spirit Blade uptime and damage.
- Several weapons had their balance updated for the new Spirit Blade uptime and damage.
- Special Ability: Spirit Blade
- Redesigned as Crushing Tide:
- 20 second cooldown, 2 Blade Energy cost, off the GCD
- Can only be activated when you have at least 2 Spirit Blade attacks remaining
- Empower your Spirit Blade with the destructive force of a tsunami making landfall, causing your next Blade attack to shatter the Spirit Blade, dealing 2.6CP damage for each remaining attack.
- Passive: Masterpiece
- Redesigned as Second Wave:
- When “Crushing Tide” shatters your Spirit Blade, its recharge timer is reduced by 1.25 seconds for each remaining Spirit Blade attack.
- Power: Swallow Cut
- Now benefits from agents that increase Power ability damage.
- Fixed an incorrect interaction that triggered Immortal Spirit too frequently.
- Passive: Immortal Spirit
- Can no longer be purged.
- Power: Tsunami
- While channeling, your movement speed is increased by 20%.
- When Tsunami is interrupted, you are now refunded unused energy. If you get off 3 hits and then are interrupted, you will be refunded 2 energy for the 2 uncompleted hits.
- Elite: Dancing Blade
- Range increased to 15 meters, up from 10.
- Special Ability: Hone
- The next Blade attack purges 1 beneficial effect from all enemies it hits.
- Special Ability: Soothing Spring
- Additionally cleanses 1 detrimental effect from team members every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. Healing is now capped at 15,000 maximum health
- Dev Commentary: Blade as a weapon did not have much in the way of team utility, making it the perfect place to add additional team-wide cleansing as an alternative to Cleanup.
- Passive: Clairvoyance
- Healing is now capped at 15,000 maximum health
- Passive: Focused Breathing
- Generaets 1 Chi every 10 seconds.
- Passive: Warrior’s Spirit
- Damage increased.
- Talisman: Master’s Chain
- Redesigned.
- When you reach 5 Chi, your next Blade attack deals 1.25CP additional damage.
- Weapon: Stormbringer
- Now generates 2 Chi on entering combat, and 1 Chi every 4 seconds afterwards.
- Weapon: Shattered Hellblade
- Updated: When your Spirit Blade shatters, deal 4.5 CP damage to nearby enemies.
- Weapon: Rhythmic Blade
- Redesigned.
- While your Spirit Blade is forged, you generate an additional Spirit Blade attack every 4 seconds.
- Weapon: Mantric Blade
- Redesigned.
- Whenever your Spirit Blade shatters, recite a mantra for 3 seconds that increases your chance to generate Chi by 30% for 3 seconds.
- Weapon: Soviet Techsword
- Redesigned.
- Whenever you hit with a Blade ability, you deal 0.25CP extra damage. Whenever you hit with a non-Blade ability, you have an 28% chance to generate 1 Chi.
- The Techsword belongs to a set of weapons designed to function as offhands. However, it gained popularity as a mainhand weapon, so its redesigned form aims to fit both roles, although it is most effective as an offhand.
- Weapon: Blade of Bloodied Silks
- Redesigned.
- The cooldown of “Crushing Tide” is reduced by 4 seconds.
- Weapon: Razor’s Edge
- Chance to generate Chi increased to 50% on crit.