Ring blades

[PercyP]

Any tips? It seems really, really bad at the moment, but I'm assuming it's relatively well balanced and I'm missing something? Needs upgrading more?

[Ulyaoth]

Hi,

do you need a general tipp how to use em or do you try to do something specific Quest-related?

For a Build Suggestion:
My favorite way with Ring Blades is the Crit Path.
Used in combination with Melee, Physical or both, it can become an insane strong Ability.
Build:
"Shield Maiden - Forgotten Viaduct"
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3038035307

If this was not what you are looking for, just give some more specifics what you want.
Cheers!

[Mr. Molecule]

Its been one of those abilities that racks up a lot of damage that you don't seem to notice in my experience. It will end up as number 2-3 in terms of weapons/abilities for that run.

The problems i have with it are its tags. Its melee, its ranged, its physical, and if you get one of the upgrade paths, gets a magic tag on one. So it really only benefits from the physical ethereal shift. But the magic ring blade is extremely useful vs blocking enemies which are more prevalent in later stages. And not taking ethereal shift(overkill at that point in most runs) is skipping a lot of dps for other abilities/weapons.

its kind of a middle of the pack ability that doesn't stand out to me. No insane power spikes, not tedious to use, but doesn't really sync up great with other abilities. I typically only get it on the melee/physical weapon classes, and skip it on the rest.

[mcrsdm5]

They really need to do something about ring blades and morning star being both melee and projectile. Ethereal shift really screws them both over. It makes it so that you really shouldn't pick either of them unless you carry an Oblivion all the way to 70 for 1 thing. Just make ring blades projectile and morning star melee and problem solved.

[🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺]

Originally posted by mcrsdm5:

They really need to do something about ring blades and morning star being both melee and projectile. Ethereal shift really screws them both over. It makes it so that you really shouldn't pick either of them unless you carry an Oblivion all the way to 70 for 1 thing. Just make ring blades projectile and morning star melee and problem solved.

Generally speaking, taking one Ethereal is still a DPS increase for these. The +50% attack speed is worth more than the -200% damage.

This kind of thing is part of bringing variety to the game. Not everything has to be all-good all-the-time.

[NeverADullDoor]

Originally posted by 🌺💗Tazzunda💗🌺:

Generally speaking, taking one Ethereal is still a DPS increase for these. The +50% attack speed is worth more than the -200% damage.

This kind of thing is part of bringing variety to the game. Not everything has to be all-good all-the-time.

It's not purely about being all-good, all-the-time, but about some abilities getting disincentives to being used over others. This is kind of the space where the logic and math of game design has to give way to the human psychology aspect; sacrificing 200% damage for a 50% increase in attack speed feels bad, even if the math proves it's an overall increase. Taking other, "pure", abilities (for lack of a better term) will always seem more efficient when it comes time to take ES, and ES is such a good buff that not having your build maximize the most out of both ES A and B very often feels like a waste.

[PercyP]

Thanks for the feedback all, one thing I did start checking was the numbers and yeah, it's not as bad as it feels per se; I'm guessing it actually does a lot of offscreen killing

[🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺]

Originally posted by NeverADullDoor:

... sacrificing 200% damage for a 50% increase in attack speed feels bad, even if the math proves it's an overall increase.

That's totally valid and I agree. Games should be about what feels good.

However, it's also on the player to somewhat find what sorts of games they enjoy. This is a blend of pewpew + making a build. So, I still find it hard to condemn ES. That said, I 100% think it needed a 3rd simplified choice like +10% speed +10% dmg. So you could avoid the others without needing a potion. I think the devs messed up there.