by Chris Ware on Jun 03, 2011
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..
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.
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 wouldnt 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.
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.
Pairing these two souls gives a player high damage output against both
cloth based and heavily armored foes alike. Enhancing the
Paragons 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.
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.