Overview

Welcome to the first deep dive into our ongoing class updates!

In these posts, we’ll take an in-depth look at the mechanics, skills, and abilities that are changing for one of our classes. As a class finishes its design pass and is being implemented, internally tested, and tuned, we’ll post an additional update similar to this one. This means there’s a high probability that some aspects will change before they reach the beta servers. Nonetheless, these deep dives should hopefully answer some of the more nitty-gritty questions regarding each class.

First up: the Spellblade.

This class has received a thorough rework and a slight re-theming. The core fantasy of a magic-imbued duelist was compelling, but the previous iterations either relied too much on RNG/luck to get procs, or added flat damage to every attack that was heavily biased toward fast weapons.

Historically, there were also few decisions to be made by the player, with limited ways to express skill or shape the outcome of a battle. The Unstable Barrier ability created some interesting play, but anchored a large part of your DPS on stealing hits from the tank. These are the main issues we’ve tried to address in the class update.

Before we get started, make sure you’ve read the original update overview.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the major abilities in the new Spellblade kit!

Infusions

Infusions are stance-like buffs that activate procs and can be “conducted” via the Conduit ability to provide more powerful or useful effects. Infusion procs activate frequently to inflict damage, while having a less frequent chance to apply an additional effect.

Arcane Infusion

• Infuse your weapon with arcane energy, granting you a chance to deal Magic Damage on melee attacks and a lesser chance to activate Arcane Frailty.

• Arcane Frailty: Strip your target's arcane defenses, decreasing their Magic Resistance.

• While this infusion is active, the Mana cost of Arcane Spear is reduced.

• Conduct this infusion to detonate arcane energy upon your target, dealing Magic Damage.

Electric Infusion

• Infuse your weapon with electric energy, granting you a chance to deal Electric Damage on melee attacks and a lesser chance to stun them.

• While this infusion is active, the Mana cost of Discharge is reduced.

• Conduct this infusion to arc electric energy through your target, dealing Electric Damage and stunning them before arcing to another target.

Telekinetic Infusion

• Infuse your weapon with telekinetic energy, granting you a chance to deal Physical Damage on melee attacks and a lesser chance to activate Kinetic Siphon.

• Kinetic Siphon: Siphon the kinetic energy of your target, decreasing their Movement Speed and Agility while increasing yours by the same amount.

• While this infusion is active, the Mana cost of Kinetic Ward is reduced.

• Conduct this infusion to blast your target with telekinetic force, knocking them back and immobilizing them.

Conduit

• Conduct your current infusion, channeling it into a unique spell of the same type.

• Activating this ability places your current infusion on a long cooldown, and all other infusions on a short one.

Conduit offers you some burst/utility at the cost of a cooldown, making infusion management an important strategic decision.

Offensive Abilities

Infused Slash

• Slash your target with an infused blade, dealing Weapon Ratio Damage plus additional damage based on your current infusion.

This is your standard attack.

Arcane Spear

• Hurl a spear of arcane energy at your target, dealing Magic Damage.

• While Arcane Infusion is active, the Mana cost of this spell is reduced.

This is a ranged ability that’s useful for pulling, but can also serve as a staple attack when Arcane Infusion makes it more economical.

Discharge

• Electrocute your target with a powerful discharge, dealing Electric Damage.

• While Electric Infusion is active, the Mana cost of this spell is reduced.

This is a short range damage spell.

Maelstrom

• Become a maelstrom of magical energy, increasing your Attack Speed and chance to activate infusion effects.

This is a high level offensive cooldown.

Defensive Abilities

Kinetic Ward

• Construct a kinetic ward, increasing your Armor Class and absorbing damage received.

• While Telekinetic Infusion is active, the Mana cost of this spell is reduced.

• This spell scales with your Intelligence.

This was formerly Unstable Barrier. The offensive bonus has been removed, making it a purely defensive option.

Deflection

• Take a deflective stance, greatly increasing your Parry chance.

• While Deflection is active, each parried attack will trigger your current infusion effect.

This is a defensive cooldown that also offers some potential burst damage.

Damage Fields

Implosion

• Create a crushing vacuum around your target, decreasing their Block, Dodge, and Parry chance.

• When this spell expires, the vacuum implodes, dealing Physical Damage to your target and those around it.

Static Field

• Place a static field at your feet, periodically dealing Electric Damage to targets within the affected area.

Mobility

Phase Strike

• Instantly teleport behind your target, dealing Weapon Ratio Damage, activating your current infusion effect, and removing all stun and immobilize effects.

• This ability can be used while stunned or immobilized.

This is a gap closer.

Seclusion

• Seclude your target, reducing your Threat against them, immobilizing them, and teleporting yourself a short distance away.

This is a melee-range ability.

Aura/Buffs

Aura of the Arcane

• Envelop your group in an arcane aura, increasing their Intelligence and Spell Damage dealt.

How Does It Play?

With this new toolkit, Spellblades can make important decisions during combat, or even before it, if a pull doesn’t go to plan.

For example, they could Phase Strike ahead to an incoming enemy and push it back by conducting their Telekinetic Infusion. Or they could use Seclusion to lock the mob down before it gets to the group, while teleporting back to safety. Maybe before heading back to the group, they drop a Static Field on the foe while it’s locked in place.

When fighting alone, Spellblades will likely want to soften up their opponent with a few Arcane Spears before committing to a melee fight. But do they lock them down with one of their kinetic-based roots first, or do they start the fight in melee with Telekinetic Infusion and hope for some Kinetic Siphon procs to do a little kiting? Maybe they hope their Kinetic Ward can mitigate the damage and get right to business.

In steady group play, Spellblades still rely on procs for a significant portion of their damage while making regular use of Infused Slash. But to deal optimal damage, they’ll need to weave in Arcane Spear, Discharge, or conduct Arcane Infusion.

There’s a few more abilities in the initial kit rollout, so hopefully some fun surprises remain for those who choose this path.

How would YOU play the Spellblade? Let us know!