Refreshed Dodge Efficiency on Weak Spot Hit. {melee_weakspot_damage} Melee Weakspot Damage.
12-24% Rending on Enemy Weak Spot Hit for 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
Gain between 3.5-5% and 14-20% Critical Chance based on current level of peril.
2 Shots on Critical Hit. 2-5% Ranged Crit Chance.
Mainly based on Ranged weapon usage. This build utilizes a lot of crit chance, from both the Prescience Aura and operative modifiers as well as perks and blessings to maximize your critical output. And of course, with the Surge Blessing you can unleash a second projectile when your shot is a critical, boosted by a further 5% from the Surge Blessing itself. Using the primary fire you can also suppress enemies to get closer or give your team a breather. The build is set up to maximize damage output at ranges so Warp Resistance on the staff should be the dump stat, especially with the use of Warp Rider talent boosting damage subsequently with peril rate.
That's where Venting Shriek comes in as well. In the event you're about to perils, you can use the vent to save yourself, or if a boss is coming, set up yourself to perils on purpose. Use the Venting Shriek at 100%, then spam Brain Rupture to deal MAJOR damage to the boss, and if you have 3 stacks of Empowered Psionics, your first three casts are free and do even more damage. They also charge up SUPER fast thanks to the blitz modifier Kinetic Resonance to boost casting speed by +75% for 10 seconds after using your Combat Ability! Useful even on clusters of maulers or crushers too! And with the staffs secondary, if you manage to line up a sleuth of enemies in a row (i.e. hordes), you can charge the secondary to collateral them all in defensible choke points. Got one pesky elite or specialist hiding behind the horde and can't hit it without hitting them? Charge up the secondary attack and hit it through the horde! Get a crit and manage to get two shots out? He's most certainly gonna die. Still not dead? Well then, the blitz modifier Kinetic Flayer will hopefully proc and finish the job, automatically brain rupturing them for no peril cost to you. Despite what others might say, Kinetic Flayer is a wonderful blitz modifier. It can save someone in extremely clutch moments and save a mission that either wise would've ended poorly. Kinetic Flayer can also proc on status effects. So in the event you manage to kill an elite or specialist nearby another elite or specialist and trigger Soulblaze on them (via Perilous Combustion talent point), each damage tick done to that elite or specialist has a chance to proc Kinetic Flayer as well. What's not to love?
And in moments where ranged weaponry is not viable, such as a crowd of Crushers or Maulers rushing you or Scab Ragers getting up close and personal, you have the Dueling Sword as a solid backup for getting through that pesky armor and taking them down in very little time. With Cleave Damage being the dump stat cause... yeah, its a stabbing weapon... what you gonna cleave exactly? Still, you should absolutely get the weapon to 500 power as Scab Ragers helmets are Flak Armor, not carapace like their body, and that's where you're aiming. Cleave Damage does boost Flak Armor damage, but still not as much as Penetration. Utilizing the Agile Blessing, you can consistently refresh your dodge charges, on top of adding a further 10% to weakspot damage with the perk you've applied. And with the subsequent weakspot hits, you'll also build up Uncanny Strike Blessing stacks, which will boost your Rending with said weapon, up to a wonderful 120% when at 5 stacks. Which won't be hard with a melee that strikes as fast as this one, even without the extra melee speed from the talent point. The mainstay of the weapon however, is the usage of the weapons Mobility stat at the max 80%. Its sprint speed is a great bonus, but that's not what's special about it. What is special, is the dodge limit, and dodge distance. Paired with the Anticipation talent point in the tree, you can boost the dodge duration by a further 50%, and get an extra dodge charge. Meaning your efficient dodge count is 6 instead of 5. And with dodge duration, you travel farther in each dodge. The point of that is to be untouchable when in melee combat. A skilled player can get through an entire mission with this weapon without breaking toughness even once.
