The problem with Soulfist

Class Discussion Class Discussion
1

2000 hours played.
My 6 characters Paladin, Sorc, Zerker, Shadow Hunter, Soulfist and Gunlancer.

Soulfist has always been the problem character for me. I have spent a lot of thought trying to figure out what exactly about it made me not like playing it as much as my other characters.

She is comparably effective at completing the content so performance is not the issue. I understand the Koreans place her in the top tier for dps after the most recent balance patch. She is an effective class. But why does it feel so bad when I play her?

I think the main issue with her was almost addressed in the most recent balance patch beta testing phase, but they reverted the change before it went live. Her main issue is she has 2 ramp up mechanics and they do not easily coordinate with each other.

Hype and Energy Release. The 2 skills need to be used in succession. But for that to work you sometimes need to hold one of them for a long time waiting for the others cooldown to line up with it. That just feels terrible. As far as I know no other class has 2 ramp up mechanics on separate timers. Gunlancer just has Bash. Sorc just has Ignition. Artillerist just has Firepower meter buff. Even if another class has 2 self buffs they don’t compare to the damage multiplication of the soulfists. Without the buffs you hit for 1000 with one buff it’s 2500 with both buffs it’s 10000.

Sometimes I will hold damage skills on my sorc b/c I have an Ignitor ready and want to get a double doomsday in. Soulfist is like this except there are 2 timers now so you need to always wait for a long time to do your rotation, every rotation, even if your skills are off CD. If you just use you skills without coordinating these 2 buffs you literally do no damage.

SG almost removed one of the buffs last patch. I really hope they do it this next balance patch. But keep her as one of the top dps by changing something else of course!

2

Soulfist is not top dps, koreans forget to mention that it is mandatory to have BiS party synergy for soulfist to match top tier dps, while the actual top tier classes skyrocket past it without these kind of needs.

3

Just use the EO engraving. It’s a lot more fun.

4

Yeah I think it’s time to swap over to EO and try it out. I hear it is good. I just really wanted Robust Spirit to work.

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5

Soulfist Robust spirit needs spec probably more than any other class. I have 1650 spec and my SF actually feels a lot better to play, once we unlock Bracelets it will feel amazing.

I can fit 2 Energy release damage rotations into my hype 3, but once my hype ends i hardy use a skill because i have a 14 second recovery time on hype. Outside of Hype i only use lightning palm, Bolting crash and Flash step the other skills i save until Hype.

EO is a far easier Engraving and is stronger than Robust at the moment, I’m sticking to Robust until we get Bracelets. At 1800+ spec Soulfist should feel amazing to play

6

Eo is better and, more importantly, way more fun.

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7

just git gud.

If you are having issues with robust then consider switching to energy as the playstyle for me is pretty fluid and fast skill spam with no issues doing top dps. even overtaking 1340’s on armored necro when I reached t3 with only 1304.

I always pump to hype 2 > do dps > when it’s about to end wait on some cd if timing is right > switch hype 3 > use everything > keep spamming skills > repeat > MVP

8

Where did you get this information? She is literally one of the top DPS in the game lmao

9

Eo is better I do agree tho setup can be annoying sometimes but that being said with the right group synergy she is top 5 DPS.

10

I have a 1470 EO with 5*3, full dominion, and I love it.

But you’re right, even with an EO/swift build, it freaking sucks when I miss or mess up my rotation.

Addition to that, putting judgement on force orb and conviction with heavenly squash makes it even harder and more frustrating when I mess up my rotation lmao fml

The worst thing ever is when I miss switching from hype 3 to max then I have to wait like 30ish secs to go to hype again while wasting my dominion buff.

Yeah yeah, git gud is probably what most people would tell me but Soulfist is definitely a very mech heavy char and missing a rotation is VERY punishing to our DPS.

Again, I would like to say to the DEVELOPERS…

Please, for the love of god, please implement automatic hype stage switch activation.
So when EO activates hype 1, it would automatically switch to hype 2 when it ends. Same as robust, when hype 3 ends, it would go to max. This simple switch would be so helpful

11

Why are you using Judgement on Force Orb? ‘-’ It’s better to use it on the skill with more hits, isn’t it? Regarding this thing with Judgement/Conviction, I decided to always put the Skill with Conviction on R and Judgement on F, so it’s really hard to mess up this order since I make it in every single character xD

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12

I still have the old build.

Merciless
Shadow breaker
Force orb
Heavenly swuash
Temptest
Bolting crash

Switching ain’t easy because of tripods haha.

But even so, I’m actually looking to replace my judgement and conviction to galewind since I’m a swift build.

Is galewind additive?

Any recommendations?

13

only EO is top dps class and from reading your post i assume you are RS

14

The tripods hurt to change, indeed, but you’ll have to start at some point, right xD

I didn’t change Shadowbreaker for Cripling Barrier as of now, I actually have 2 sets of tripods because I decided that the Helmet would be the armor with their tripods for only one of them, so I have a spare helmet piece from Chaos Dungeons with a lock on my Inventory to save tripods and then I have my Helmet from armor with the ones I’m using, and the broken helmet with the other one.

Normally I use Shadowbreaker among these two, because I like it’s utility more (on Valtan it has weak point dmg, and due to the Overwhelm rune it gives more stagger, which is useful on Vykas), but it’s a known fact that Cripling Barrier gives more damage, if you ever fells like damage is more importante than utility, you should definetily put Cripling Barrier.

As for Tempest, I really recomend you to let it go, it’s a bad skill compared to Energy Blast (I took some time to make this change as well, but I couldn’t deny it anymore xD). Not only it gives less damage, it takes longer to cast, and deals the damage in a single hit, unlike Energy Blast, so it’s really bad when it doesn’t crit, and Soulfist builds don’t have that much critical chance to guarantee it’ll normally crit.

When changing Tempest to Energy Blast you’ll end up with 1 less tripod, because of that I started to use Dmg Reduction on the Second Line of Energy Release, normally I leave it on Tenacity, but in case my party is having a hard time surviving or I’m playing without a support, it’s a good damage reduction, despite being more risky regarding your own damage (the buff could be canceled and disrupt one of your rotations).

I really like using Judgement and Conviction, Force Orb and Heavenly Squash are fast skills already, you don’t need to use Galewind on them, use your Galewinds on Merciless and Tempest/Energy Blast. Judgement on Heavenly and Conviction on Force Orb

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15

Yeah I’m on the same boat right now, trying to build a new tripod set in my inventory but these transfer rates are shit LOL

16

Might get the new tripod system hopefully

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17

I decided to change Tempest for Energy Blast for good when I tested on trixion and noticed that even with the gems and better tripods on Tempest Blast, Energy Blast was still dealing around the same amount of damage (a little less when Tempest was a critical, but much more when Tempest didn’t crit)

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18

Interesting! I’ll try that out! Ty