I have played a few 2H Warders and pure Soldiers using Blade Arc/Blitz (left/right) in Normal and leveled them past 50 with a couple of minor issues.
Bosses can be a problem till you are able to pick up physical damage % skills as well as skills that convert attack % -> health. But that’s an early game problem that is solved once devotion gets going or you invest a few points in Shaman skills.
Energy consumption is an issue and you have to chug energy potions.
Otherwise, they are a lot of fun.
I cannot say the same thing about Cadence/Blitz (left/right). It feels like picking out mosquitoes individually and killing them with a sledgehammer. Bosses and energy are no longer issues. Mobs are.
Is there any way to build a “fun” 2H Cadence-based Warder (Normal difficulty including early game)? Any skills/devotions that might help?
Max Fighting form asap as this give you 3 targets per Cadence hit and don’t overlook the power of Deadly Momentum as this buff boosts ALL your attacks while active including the first 2 hits to charge up Cadence…personally I also aim for + attack speed so Cadence fires off quicker / more often
The downside of cadence is that by its nature it’s AS dependent. Without high AS clear speed is pathetic due to the pseudo AoE. Single target damage is ok no matter what, though.
My advice is to focus on AoE procs to compensate. Blind fury, falcon swoop, bull rush, maul, oleron’s wrath relic, etc. More points in blitz also add to the AoE.
Break morale imroves both single and AoE damage significantly.
Arcane spark will more likely solve mana sustain issues.
It is the early game that is tedious for now. So, falcon swoop is doable during Act 1. I will try a couple of characters and see how the early game plays.
I was under the impression that your char is higher. Whatever.
At the very early levels you got the falcon swoop, then comes maul, blitz is on. If you still find clear speed insufficient, it’s because it is. Cadence builds can’t compete to skills/builds which provide consistent and high AoE damage, thus having very fluent leveling process.
Cadence shines lategame, with fully geared chars. But leveling is tedious and often painful. Of course this isn’t written in the guide, nor the fact that a great part of the builds in the classes/builds subforum use premade characters because of reasons.
IMO you’d better level with blade arc and respec later.