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Solo The Stone Mage - a durable Blood/Chaos build

koralis

LoMS Member
I'm a guy that will always pick durability over damage. In Master of Orion 2, my fleets were regenerating juggernauts. In TSW my characters can take a beating and get back up. So, for SWL I had to figure out what that meant... in TSW generally it meant a Tank/Healer hybrid. In beta I tried my tried and true Hammer/Fist combo, but discovered that I really disliked the new Fist mechanics for how I'd play it, and that unlike TSW, Hammers are damned popular now which means that I would avoid it for the sake of uniqueness.

Back to the drawing board, I went with Rossalyn's combo of Blood/Chaos, though it plays completely differently than TSW did. I tried various skills and load-outs, but here's what seems to work best for me. Nothing really fancy here in terms of theory... it's fairly straightforward. Though Blood is Primary, we are NOT going to be trying to max Corruption to up damage. The goal here is sustainability... This setup is primarily tested as a soloing build, BUT I suspect could represent a decent tanking build (I was tanking story modes at least :) with some talisman changeups discussed below. (it also puts me within a stone's throw of a healer build that I can work toward, by adding either Fist or Assault Rifle... working on Assault Rifle.)

So the load-out.... Blood is primary. This allows my free attack of choice and, more importantly, has a high enough regen rate that I'm never too concerned about healing. Also, Chaos has the added bonus of not degrading out of combat, so you don't need to be AS concerned about building to 8. Initially, I was using chaos as filler, so having persistent resources was important.



Actives

Sanctuary
Pop one off before you begin your attack, and they may very well be dead before it wears off. I use two Heal majors to give it enough oomph to do the job I ask of it. Talisman to taste. What makes Sanctuary better than the old blood barriers is that it's both a Heal and a Barrier depending on the situation. You need to watch the countdown timer though so that you can reapply.

Eldritch Scourge (with Desolate passive)

Hits hard, keeps a group of things from hitting you hard w/ debilitate AND heals you and your team for the duration if needed. What's not to love? It's the best skill in the game! :) Unlike most debilitates, this one applies each time the DoT does damage, which means it's "self-stacking" so the duration is longer than you'd think.

Torment

Torment is my free attack. I tried the Chaos ones out, but frankly the utility of being able to fire off from range is totally worth the loss of multi-hit or high hate for groups. I've done a lot of damage while rolling out of an AoE attack and blasting a Torment... damage that would be 0 if I was using the Chaos free attack.

Dread Sigil
Sometimes you get attacked in bulk and Eldritch Scourge needs help... for those times, you need Dread Sigil. Being a ranged AoE, this also lets you cut down a group as they rush you. I used to use the passive, but eventually gave it up so that I could take a couple of different ones that amuse me more. Frankly, I don't use Dread Sigil that much (except in scenarios) as spamming it raises corruption and reduces available power for healing. I'll often tap it a couple of times for "free power" if I'm at 15 Blood energy since it regens fast.

Distortion (with Veil of Deformity passive)
Unexpectedly, this has become my spam skill. Does a lot of single-target damage, and with the passive does a lot of follow-up damage as they attack back. The big boost to Protection is gravy... if my barrier gets taken out, this reduces how much of my life goes with it. I tend to deliberately spread around the active damage, and let the passive backlash finish them off. For fast-attacking opponents (say, Ghouls) they can kill themselves very quickly. Moderating the active with power regen becomes the key in longer fights... try to keep 3-4 stacks up and go with Torment if you're running dry on power. See *Shard of Retribution passive for synergy.

Rupture
I don't use it that often, and it was a LOT more impressive at low levels than at high levels, but the fact of the matter is that whether the damage is amazing or not, and whether you NEEDED the stun or not, Blood needs a way to quickly normalize Corruption or you can quickly find yourself in a pickle. Reap or Runic Hex could do the job too. Love Runic Hex if I have the passive, but without it it's less impressive. And besides, sometimes a stun comes in handy... just a shame that a lot of the nasties in dungeons simply resist them outright.



Passives

Desolate

Raises damage and healing 52% on a skill that was already quite impressive. No brainer.

Paradoxical Restoration
Not completely sure it's necessary, but haven't had the nerve to ditch it. Periodic free healing (4%) just for spamming an attack skill. Synergies with...

Resonance Cascade
18% chance at 1 Paradox per second. If I get a paradox, I also get a heal. Oh yeah, I also get free Chaos buffs without needing to think about purging, which I don't have headspace for (or skills to do it.)

Veil of Deformity
Enhances Distortion... 960 protection per stack, up to 4. If you get attacked, a stack vanishes but does some damage to the attacker. (and then the stack gets replaced by using distortion again.) Fast-attacking enemies can really do a number on themselves against this passive. Brings protection high enough that if the bubble pops, you don't really take much if any damage till you can get it back in place (and then that damage gets auto-healed by Paradoxical.)


edit:
Shroud of Retribution
One that could probably be swapped out if you prefer to go a different way. It works in conjunction with Veil of Deformity to do auto-damage to foes. Also makes the barrier 3% bigger, so not worthless either way.

Lingering Curse
Decided that it's a bit more effective than the shroud damage-wise and have enough healing that the bigger barrier didn't matter. With lower Heal skill, the shroud might be a better idea. I love the IDEA of the shroud (I used the old EC barriers and did a fair amount of damage that way) but the damage output just isn't quite there at this point in time.




Talismans - Solo
Nothing special here... all attack talismans except for 2 Heal majors. Partly this is so that I have a good leg up on a Healing build. Could probably make due with less, but if so might find yourself spamming Sanctuary more. As I said, I tend to favor safety and rarely getting into a fight I can't walk away from victorious.

Talismans - Tank
I'm currently building up a couple of hate/protection talismans for a tanking scenario.

Luminous Bracer of Forgotten Horrors - If debilitated attacks you, do damage. High hate.
Luminous Black Sash - if attacking something facing you, high hate

Between those two, I expect to be able to handle even high damage DPS problems.
 
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Neat-looking build, and another to add to my ever-growing "I really have to try this" list.
 
I’m really loving this build. Still a work in progress as far as talismans are concerned. The only thing I changed was torment. On a personal level, I preferred the multi attack.
 
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