Riftblade

A powerful mix of power and finesse the Riftblade is one of the most unusual of the warrior souls. By using magic based attacks to deal their damage, Riftblades present a host of problems for their enemies. The elemental abilities employed by the Riftblade are designed to bypass armor and can help round out a DPS warrior build by adding additional damage to classes with high physical mitigation..

Pros

• Damage has high percentage of armor penetration
• Adds ranged attacks to a traditionally close quartered class
• High synergy factor with other souls
• Many enhancing abilities are available early in the tree

Cons

• Susceptible to physical damage
• Enhancing abilities have been subject of much tinkering during beta
• Lack of diversity in the tree makes this mostly a supporting soul
• Weak against magic resistant foes

Overview

Devastating their opponents with the fury of the elements, Riftblades have a unique playstyle amongst warriors.  Most players will not want to use the Riftblade as their primary talent tree, but almost every build can find utility and power with this as a second or third soul.

Solo Play

Riftblades will find extreme highs and deep lows when soloing their way around Telara, as the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents will weigh heavily on their success. Even though the deeper into the tree one goes the greater the damage capabilities become, most of the punch is AOE in nature and a Riftblade wouldn’t be able to handle the incoming pain of that many opponents.  Even though a nice reactive heal is available deep into the root system, there are better solo options in the warrior line.

Group Play

A Riftblade player with a fair amount of ingenuity and a healthy dose of reckless abandon can create a formidable damage dealer that compliments an AOE group nicely.  Riftblades are great for focus bursting heavily armored opponents and can provide some moderate crowd control abilities.

Pairs Best With

Paragon

Pairing these two souls gives a player high damage output against both cloth based and heavily armored foes alike.  Enhancing the Paragon’s already high damage output with elemental strikes and weapon procs is a smart move indeed. Elemental Caress is an excellent talent in this pairing as it reduces threat by up to 50%, it is fairly deep in the tree however.

Champion

Another strong DPS pairing for the Riftblade is the Champion. Adding even more crowd control to the mix, the Champion also grants the player a second means of breaking free of enemy roots, snares and incapacitations in the form of Ruthless Pursuit.  Another prime pairing, and a bargain at only 8 spent points into the root, is Mark of Inevitability which reduces the targets armor by 160 – making it even more vulnerable to Riftblades elemental attacks.