Tried couple of older builds with bleed, including the default Bloodrager + Gutsmasher and felt like the dmg of BA is still underwhelming compared to melee peers like DW, Cadence or even PS.
Then i tried to go for max realistic dmg of unconventional BA dmg types with two builds - chaos Witchblade and cold Blademaster. The first one performed alright, only slightly below the best chaos builds buffed by Occultist’s rr. But the helmet has tdm% for the skill and overall items stacked for the build’s needs.
The cold one immediately felt weaker than all other cold melee builds i tried this patch. Even the max dmg rendition has mediocre dmg, is very expensive and very high demands for piloting to survive.
Soldier has not 1, not 2, but 3 BA conduits for elemental dmg. All require very specific and not cheap gear to tailor to BA ranks with unconventional dmg type. If the intention for these conduits to remain a meme, so be it. But that would feel kinda wasteful.
I think all elemental conduits deserve a good tdm% modifier, even bigger than chaos, to accomodate for unconventional dmg type. Also would like to see some BA mod on a pierce 2hander, be it Nadaan or Bonebleach.
Hmmn, it’s not that shabby though, but yeah, maxing out BA is hard for anything that isn’t already supporting it and physical damage, so the conduits could do with more added damage. Also, looks like your version is the best possible one, looked at alt. devotion path going for Leviathan, but lost too much resists and OA for it to be viable without loosing cold% more.
Be interesting to see how my Vit BA single hand ones do this patch too, but that has better support than other meme BA versions as 1 handed BA has that MI shield to help it a lot more.
I think they should change the Scythe bonuses from the blademaster build from Ring of Steel to Blade Arc and put modifiers on them to make it more competitive with other builds.
I played Spellscourge after buffs (tooltip went from 8x-109 to about 100-125k or sth like that) but it’s still Spellscourge so it kinda sucks still. dunno how much tdm or extra RR or crit you need to slap on the set to make it competitive anywhere except tank department.
bleed BA (1h bleed BA on my bleed BM) even lost some damage, flat bleed went from 165k to 161. yikes.
chaos I’m yet to try, should be good indeed.
I tried fire BA (well, 1h fire BA) recently and I’d say both 1h and ele BAs still underperform heavily. using them as a flat nuke is questionable (as it’s a hit in a small area once in 4 sec and flat itself is not that huge) and dot on everything but bleed is too low to focus on it.
This was going to be my suggestion as well. Does it hit with both hands when DWing? If not, then add both hands when DWing or using a shield to boost it a bit.
pure 1h only skill, in every configuration currently
and while it wasn’t exactly anything huge by meta standards, atleast when pitmaster axe had %wd BA mod it was somewhat “universally” capable as 1h/dualwield potential (even if “fantasy” because phys/bleed affix biased)
The golden time when finish Cru 150 6 mins is a goal for most chars and only few shield builds can withstand it with a 80% winrate. Now it’s all about wacking.
This value for a circle spam skill looks very good. For a build with 2 rr% in masteries, but not for one.
Tank is decent but the dmg is still very weak. The flat rr to BA helps clearing weaker mobs a little bit, but for bosses you still want 32 from ele storm and it’s still not enough. Boss fights drag out and Kuba and Moosie are a nightmare.
Good rooms mostly, with a lot of nemesis and very few resistant. Still over 5:30. And the eintire gameplay feels like: what the hell am i dong with this, when i can play cold Dervish, Reaper or Infiltrator?
My previous assesment for required TDM for ele Soldier conduits was correct, i think. It’s very common to give unsupported dmg types for skills a TDM to compensate for all the hoop jumping and lack of rr. Should be done here. The target for elemental BA should be 140k+, in my opinion.
Just like what RoS got in this PTR. 
