The Spellblade - Arcane Sword Duelist - Stoneshard

Introduction

Overview

The Spellblade is a 1-handed sword build, which leverages Arcane magic for battlefield control and defensive utility. In practice, it provides the classic Sword & Sorcery experience.

This hybrid playstyle is executed in a novel way by leveraging the synergies between Aether Shield, Right on Target, and Elusiveness​, supported by the light armor bonuses from Custom Adjustments​ to stack -% damage taken bonuses, instead of dodging enemy attacks. 

Character Selection

This build can be played on many different characters, but I think that 2 stand out from the rest.

Character	Trait
​ Leosthenes	Leosthenes is a very strong character and the game's prime spellblade. His unique trait, Might and Magic​, rewards you for mixing weaponry skills with sorcery ones, as well as giving you an enormous amount of Health and Energy to boot. However, he does not start with 1-handed swords unlocked, which leads to a challenging early game. That being said, Leo is the character I chose for my playthrough.
Jorgrim	Jorgrim is a strong character, and is many people's favourite for both mechanical and roleplay reasons. His unique trait, Gore and Glory​, is incredibly powerful, enabling him to earn more money and unlock stronger gear sooner, while also getting extra attribute points. Most importantly for this build, he starts with 1-handed swords, which leads to an easier early game.

I recommend going with Leo. While not having 1h swords at the start of the game definitely hurts, this challenge can be overcome with good gameplay fundamentals and the tips included in this guide. Besides, I tested this build on him.

Final Stat Spread

Final Skills

Final Gear

Item	Contribution
Captain Messer	This weapon offers the highest base damage of all 1h swords, coupled with extra armor penetration, crit and bleed chance.    Optimal enchantment is Crit Chance, or Life Drain. Energy Drain can be considered lategame, in conjunction with Peak Performance​, after level 24.
Geomancer Cowl	This is the only non-unique headpiece which offers -5% damage taken, which is essential for this build. Additionally, it is considered light, which is important for its synergy with Custom Adjustments​.   Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Pourpoint	This armor offers an innate -5% damage taken, which is essential for this build. It offers better durability than the Norrheim Garnment and is considered light, which is important for Custom Adjustments​ and Battle-Forged​ synergy.   Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Blademaster Gloves	These gloves offer helpful offensive stats and are light, which is important for Custom Adjustments​ synergy.   Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Mage Hunter Boots	These boots offer solid dodge and counter chance numbers, while also providing -2% fumble and backfire chance, which is useful on this build. Additionally, they provide some magic resist to your feet, which helps against undead and vampires, who may place harmful effects beneath your character's feet.   Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Jousting Cloak	This cloak offers innate -5% damage taken, which is essential for this build. Its other bonuses are likewise solid. This cloak is the best in the game for this build. This cloak is obtained by killing the Ancient Troll during the Troll Hunt quest in Mannshire.
Captain Waistband	This belt provides helpful offensive stats, allowing us to reduce fumble chance to 0%. There are no better options for the belt slot.    Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Ruby Pendant	This pendant helps max out your accuracy, while also reducing your skill energy costs and cooldown duration. The Everflame Pendant can also be considered, but the Ruby Pendant is just a safer choice.   Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist
Silver Emerald Rings	These rings offer +6 max health, paired with -3% fumble chance reduction, which helps reduce your fumble chance to 0. Optimal Enchantment is Bleed or Control Resist

Progression

Stat Allocation Order

Skill Order

×

‹Leosthenes›×

‹Jorgrim›×

+ Add tab

Level	Skill	Contribution
​1	Seize the Initiative​	Attack. Powerful 1v1 tool in the early game. Useful late-game to take back the initiative from enemies with the same skill.
1	Setup​	Passive. Extremely powerful passive, which is integral to this build. It is very important to maintain its effect throughout the most dangerous part of the combat.
2	Skip
3	Skip
4	Skip
5	Pathfinder​	Passive. Reduces fumble chance while vigor is active, and shows you the position of enemies that are not in your line of sight. Helps with ambushing.
6	Cleaving Strike​	Attack. Cleaves through 3 tiles and grants counter chance for every enemy hit by the strike.
6	Keeping Distance​	Attack / Maneuver. Repositioning to another tile does not cause attacks of opportunity. Can be used to update the timer on Setup​ and Battle-Forged​, as well as generating a stack of Elusiveness​ and Fencer's Stance​.
6	Disengage​	Passive. Minor Defensive buff.
6	Blade Maintenance​	Passive. Provides minor offensive bonuses and reduces the rate at which your sword loses durability.
7	Ever Vigilant​	Passive. Minor Defensive buff. Extends the duration of your vigor with every enemy you kill, ensuring that Pathfinder will be active throughout the dungeon.
8	Fencer's Stance​	Stance. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of the build. Activate it for every combat.
9	Right on Target​	Passive. Powerful overall buff and integral part of the build. Its reduction to fumble chance scales with your Perception, the -% damage taken scales with your Vitality, and the Main Hand efficiency scales with the number of weaponry skills that you learned.
10	Dash​	Charge. Powerful skill which enables tactical repositioning, while also generating Elusiveness​ and Battle-Forged​ stacks.
11	Brace for Impact​	Maneuver. Temporarily boosts your defences, making it safer to absorb enemy attack skills. Extends the duration of Setup​.
12	Dimensional Shift​	Spell. Powerful source of battlefield control, which assists with tactical repositioning. Generates a stack of Arcane Might​ and Elusiveness​, and resets the timer on Battle-Forged​.
13	Steady Tempo​	Passive. Unconventional source of energy replenishment, which also reduces the cooldowns of your 1-handed sword skills.
14	Elusiveness​	Maneuver. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of the build. Its dodge chance scales with your Perception, while the reduction to your damage taken scales with your Vitality.
15	Battle-Forged​	Passive. Powerful defensive buff. Using any maneuver also reduces damage taken by an additional -10% for that turn.
16	Custom Adjustments​	Passive. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of this build. Grants -8% damage taken when wearing only light armor.
17	Onrush​	Attack/Charge. Powerful mobility tool and an aggressive opening move, boosting the damage dealt to that target.
18	Arcane Might​	Passive. Helpful offensive bonus which can be activated with Schism​ or by enchanting the weapon with arcane damage.
19	Aether Shield​	Spell. Powerful defensive buff, and the last core part of this build. best used to absorb dangerous attacks or to 1v1 dangerous enemies. Duration can be extended with Dimensional Shift​, targeting self. The base duration depends on the number of known arcanistics spells.
20	Schism​	Spell. Primarily used to stack up Arcane Might before battle, and is taken to extend the duration of Aether Shield​. Can be used to daze dangerous backline enemies, preventing their use of skills.
21	Not This Time​	Passive. Powerful defensive resource, which can prevent a daze, stun, stagger or immobilization. once every 90 turns.
22	Sudden Lunge​	Attack. Powerful debuff / utility tool. Can set the enemy skills on cooldown while refreshing our own cooldowns.
23	No Time to Linger​	Passive. minor offensive buff and situational upgrade to Sudden Lunge​. Stepping stone toward Adrenaline Rush​.
24	Adrenaline Rush​	Maneuver. Extremely powerful defensive buff, and a capstone to the build. Best used with 3+ stacks as the -1 to cooldown duration applies to every single turn, effectively halving the duration of all cooldowns.

Level	Skill	Contribution
1	Seize the Initiative​	Attack. Powerful 1v1 tool in the early game. Useful late-game to take back the initiative from enemies with the same skill.
1	Keeping Distance​	Attack / Maneuver. Repositioning to another tile does not cause attacks of opportunity. Can be used to update the timer on Setup​ and Battle-Forged​, as well as generating a stack of Elusiveness​ and Fencer's Stance​.
2	Cleaving Strike​	Attack. Cleaves through 3 tiles and grants counter chance for every enemy hit by the strike.
3	Setup​	Passive. Extremely powerful passive, which is integral to this build. It is very important to maintain its effect throughout the most dangerous part of the combat.
4	Pathfinder​	Passive. Reduces fumble chance while vigor is active, and shows you the position of enemies that are not in your line of sight. Helps with ambushing.
5	Blade Maintenance​	Passive. Provides minor offensive bonuses and reduces the rate at which your sword loses durability.
6	Fencer's Stance​	Stance. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of the build. Activate it for every combat.
7	Right on Target​	Passive. Powerful overall buff and integral part of the build. Its reduction to fumble chance scales with your Perception, the -% damage taken scales with your Vitality, and the Main Hand efficiency scales with the number of weaponry skills that you learned.
8	Disengage​	Passive. Minor Defensive buff.
9	Ever Vigilant​	Passive. Minor Defensive buff. Extends the duration of your vigor with every enemy you kill, ensuring that Pathfinder will be active throughout the dungeon.
10	Dash​	Charge. Powerful skill which enables tactical repositioning, while also generating Elusiveness​ and Battle-Forged​ stacks.
11	Brace for Impact​	Maneuver. Temporarily boosts your defences, making it safer to absorb enemy attack skills. Extends the duration of Setup​.
12	Elusiveness​	Maneuver. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of the build. Its dodge chance scales with your Perception, while the reduction to your damage taken scales with your Vitality.
13	Dimensional Shift​	Spell. Powerful source of battlefield control, which assists with tactical repositioning. Generates a stack of Arcane Might​ and Elusiveness​, and resets the timer on Battle-Forged​.
14	Steady Tempo​	Passive. Unconventional source of energy replenishment, which also reduces the cooldowns of your 1-handed sword skills.
15	Battle-Forged​	Passive. Powerful defensive buff. Using any maneuver also reduces damage taken by an additional -10% for that turn.
16	Custom Adjustments​	Passive. Powerful defensive buff and a core part of this build. Grants -8% damage taken when wearing only light armor.
17	Onrush​	Attack/Charge. Powerful mobility tool and an aggressive opening move, boosting the damage dealt to that target.
18	Arcane Might​	Passive. Helpful offensive bonus which can be activated with Schism​ or by enchanting the weapon with arcane damage.
19	Aether Shield	Spell. Powerful defensive buff, and the last core part of this build. best used to absorb dangerous attacks or to 1v1 dangerous enemies. Duration can be extended with Dimensional Shift​, targeting self. The base duration depends on the number of known arcanistics spells.
20	Schism​	Spell. Primarily used to stack up Arcane Might before battle, and is taken to extend the duration of Aether Shield​. Can be used to daze dangerous backline enemies, preventing their use of skills.
21	Not This Time​	Passive. Powerful defensive resource, which can prevent a daze, stun, stagger or immobilization. once every 90 turns.
22	Sudden Lunge​	Attack. Powerful debuff / utility tool. Can set the enemy skills on cooldown while refreshing our own cooldowns.
23	No Time to Linger​	Passive. minor offensive buff and situational upgrade to Sudden Lunge​. Stepping stone toward Adrenaline Rush​.
24	Adrenaline Rush​	Maneuver. Extremely powerful defensive buff, and a capstone to the build. Best used with 3+ stacks as the -1 to cooldown duration applies to every single turn, effectively halving the duration of all cooldowns.

Beyond level 24

The build has everything it needs to complete the game by level 24. Still, there are several things that you could consider taking after. I do not see a clearly superior option, so I will list them for your consideration.

Skill	Contribution
Opportune Moment​	Energy Replenishment. Better on Jorgrim.
Make a Halt​	Helps combat Fatigue buildup.
Peak Performance​	More weapon damage in short fights. Better on Leosthenes.
Self-Repair​	Helps combat rapid durability loss.
Gloat​	Nice auxiliary stats, good in long, large fights.
Honed Edge​	More armor penetration is nice, but not relevant outside of Proselyte Templars and some tier 5 undead.
Cauterize​	Can minimize the consequences of fighting against bleed-focused enemies.
First Aid​	Useful on Jorgrim specifically, to set injuries and recover health to prevent losing the Gaze of the Ancestors
Wormhole​​	More battlefield control and extra duration on Aether Shield. Better on Leosthenes.

Early & Midgame Gear

Leo's Early Game

If you play this build with Leosthenes, there are not many useful skills you can take while in Osbrook. As such, clearing all of tier 1 will be a bigger challenge than it normally is. Fortunately, there are some steps we can take to make it easier.

1. Obtain a free Training Crossbow from the Guard House. See my Early Game Guide for further details.
2. Follow the instructions for rushing tier 2 gear in my Early Game Guide. Then, buy a Reinforced Warclub from the Smith.
3. Make sure you are making the most of Setup​ during combat. Count the tiles between you and the enemy and switch back to your 2-handed mace with enough time to spare to fully charge Setup​, by waiting an extra turn.
4. Use the basic combat tactics mentioned in my Early Game Guide to give yourself the best chance of success.

Ancient Troll

Killing the Ancient Troll early is very important for the progression on this build, as that gives you a fantastic midgame helmet as well as your endgame cloak, not to mention a great amount of money. I recommend completing the Troll Hunt quest before beginning tier 3. 

Gameplay

This build is designed around stacking -% damage taken, which is a unique defensive layer best suited for light armor builds. However, it is important to understand how it interacts with dodge and block to pilot the build correctly.

Damage taken is the last step in the sequence. As the name suggests, it directly affects the amount of damage that your character would take from an attack. This means that the build is not nearly as reliant on armor protection or dodge chance as other builds when it comes to its survival. This allows the build to continue using "weaker" gear, namely the Geomancer Cowl and the Pourpoint doublet, even in tier 5, despite these items belonging in tier 4.

Dodge chance is still important since it turns regular attacks into fumbled ones, and fumbled attacks cannot crit or impose status effects. This is extremely important against enemies with 2-handed maces, Spears, and 1-handed swords.

Synergizing Setup

Setup​ is very important for this build as it generates a truly incredible amount of value. As such, it is very important to distribute your skill usage such that it is always active. It is incredibly efficient.

On this build, Elusiveness​, Brace for Impact​ and Keeping Distance​ are your primary ways of maintaining Setup​. This generally means that Elusiveness​ should not be thought of as a pre-combat buff. Instead, it is a power-up which amplifies the build's durability for a short duration.

In the late-game, this build has access to Sudden Lunge​, which drastically changes how the build performs in large fights as it enables you to cycle through your skill rotation an additional time, before ever running out of gas. It also helps to maintain Setup​ by helping Keeping Distance​ and Brace for Impact​ come off cooldown sooner.

Extending Elusiveness

In many ways, this build was designed around Elusiveness​ and its synergies. In large fights, this build wants to be moving constantly to replenish Elusiveness​ stacks, while also maximizing the effect of Battle-Forged​. 

You can instantly accumulate Battle-Forged​ by engaging the enemy with Onrush​. Once you have those stacks, you can reset the 4-turn tumer using Keeping Distance​, or Dimensional Shift​.

Accessing the Aether

Aether Shield Usage

This build takes a dash of arcanistics to round out its utility and defensive kit. Aether Shield​ is by far the most important Arcanistics skill for this build. That being said, there is some nuance to the usage of these skills that needs further explaining.

While Aether Shield​ does provide a meaningful reduction to damage taken, its primary purpose is in boosting your control and move resistances, which protect you from debilitating effects like Daze, Stun and Stagger. This means that, on this build, Aether Shield​ is not a pre-combat buff, but a defensive power-up that can absorb dangerous enemy skills. 

In that sense, it takes the same role that Brace for Impact​ fulfills on most regular melee builds, which focus on Protection, Dodge or Block as their main defences. At the same time, this gives the Spellblade freedom to use Brace for Impact​ more often, to maintain Setup​.

Schism and Arcane Might

These skills have their own synergy, which deserves a separate explanation. Arcane Might​ is a helpful combat buff which can be activated in a variety of ways, the most consistent of which is Schism​.

By casting Schism​ against 3 closely located enemies, you can instantly charge Arcane Might​ to its full capacity. You can reset the duration of Arcane Might​ by casting Dimensional Shift​.

Alternatively, you can stack Arcane Might​ by first casting Aether Shield​, and then casting Dimensional Shift​ while choosing yourself as one of the targets. This will grant all of your attacks bonus arcane damage, which will stack up Arcane Might​.

Dimensional Shift Tricks

First and foremost, shifting yourself with the enemy you are currently fighting will apply them with a powerful debuff, which will make the fight much easier. 

Secondly, if you are locked in melee with an enemy, while an enemy archer or mage is attacking from range, you can swap them to eliminate the ranged enemy first.

If you have Wormhole​, and you cast it on a melee enemy that is approaching you, you can then use Dimensional Shift​ on them and yourself. Then, you may step back onto the wormhole tile. This way, when the wormhole expires on the following turn, the enemy will be teleported back to an occupied tile. This will deal additional damage to them and possibly stun them.

Combat Sequences

Large Fights

Together, this creates a general outline for large fights:

Turn	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Action	Fencer's Stance​	Schism​	Onrush​	Elusiveness​	Cleaving Strike​	Seize the Initiative​	Keeping Distance​

Note how with this sequencing, every third turn is a maneuver. This way, Setup​ is maintained throughout. Additionally, Battle-Forged​ maintains its full effect as Keeping Distance repositions you to an adjacent tile, which resets Battle-Forged​ 's timer for another 4 turns. 

Ambushes

This build makes an excellent use of ambushes, as it is very good at frontloading its damage. 

Turn	1	2	2	3	4	5	6
Action	Fencer's Stance​	Enemy Appeared	Onrush​	Dimensional Shift​	Keeping Distance​	Seize the Initiative​	Cleaving Strike​

Note that using Dimensional Shift​ in this situation can be risky, as it would expose you to the room from where the enemy came. The benefit is that Dimensional Shift​ can daze the enemy, which would force their AI to walk into your Keeping Distance​ on their following turn. 

Seize the Initiative​ can be used instead of Dimensional Shift​ if you do not want to be exposed to the room. 

Onrush​ is a good opening move as it applies the enemy with +% damage taken, which will help you kill them faster.

1v1 Duels

When facing a singular, dangerous melee enemy, it can be best to play defensively, allowing them to burn through their skills before initiating your combo.

Turn	1	2	3	3	4	6	7
Action	Fencer's Stance​	Elusiveness​	Enemy about to strike	Aether Shield​	Dimensional Shift​	Keeping Distance​	Onrush​

In this scenario, it is worth using Elusiveness​ as a pre-combat buff because with Aether Shield​, this can minimize our damage taken. 

Endgame Tips

Dealing with Fatigue

When played with Leo, this build can accumulate a lot of Fatigue. Jorgrim does not suffer from fatigue to the same extent, thanks to Ancestor's gaze providing up to 9% fatigue resistance when clearing dungeons.

The best methods for dealing with Fatigue are:

• Alda's Brew
• Leif's Endurance Training
• Stallion Banner (found near Denbrie)
• Nutritious food

The build has an excess of energy, so fatigue does not significantly impact its performance. That being said, I advise against clearing endgame dungeons in a single day.

Maintaining Armor

Armor durability can be a problem for this build, because reducing the %  of damage taken does nothing to diminish how much damage is absorbed by your armor. It is strongly recommended that you use Darrel's armor upgrade ability to increase your max durability, as that also serves to reduce repair costs.

Additionally, I recommend that you take 1 or even 2 repair kits into the dungeon with you so you can top up the armor as you clear the dungeon.

The -5% damage taken that appears on the Geomancer Cowl and the Pourpoint is unaffected by your armor entering a broken state. It will always provide 5% damage taken, whether the armor is at 1/100 or at 100/100 durability. Since those items are tier 4, their repair costs are relatively low. 

Dangerous Enemies

This build can handle most late-game enemies comfortably; however, it can be threatened by 2-handed mace enemies, as well as those that can cause a lot of bleed.

This is because the build can be vulnerable to disabling effects, namely dazes and stuns, as the build does not have enough dodge chance to consistently turn all incoming hits into fumbles to avoid those effects. Additionally, bleeding damage seems to bypass the entire "% Damage Taken" mechanic, which makes enemies that apply bleeds in large volumes quite dangerous to us. 

Bandits

• Robber Baron (2h Mace)
• Robber Baron (Mace & Shield)
• Renegade (2h Mace)
• Ringleader (Sword & Shield)

Proselytes

• Leechlord
• Anointed
• Templar (Sword)

Undead

• Spectral Herald
• Wraith Commander
• Risen Guardsman (Mace & Shield)