Soul Breaker or Arbalester

[ElvenHottie]

I have a fem 39 warder, and was wondering what class quest would be the better choice, arbalester or soul breaker? What class lvl's faster and which is more fun to play?

[Judas]

imo

both


i realy like my arbelester as i can use both a xbow very efficiently and a rapier rather well to.. (no skills with the rapier worth mentioning but i can still lay traps like crazy with one)

[Mazer]

I've debated both but it is apparent that the Males get the better buffs/toggles for the Soulbreaker class based on their 20-40 skills.

Any thoughts out there? What are some of the good perks to an Arbalester, and do the nice 20-40 male skills outweight playing a female Soulbreaker?

Thanks!

[Kihaku]

I first wanted to become a arbalester but now decided to become soul breaker (which i am now, lvl 44).

Both classes are fun, just the playstyle is different. When you reach subclass level, you must choose the other class anyway :P

i think the female 20-40 skills are great for Soul Breaker. With Rapid Attack its just too much fun fighting with a rapier. Speed speed speed.

[LordRiot]

Don't you mean 'cost, cost, cost'?

As much as I love the mega atk speed (With some buffs I've gone over 700 in Doom light), I just end up using more shots than if I were a Zerker for instance. You tend you have to find other ways to remove the red, or you run up a high bill.
They really should make Rapier (and perhaps even Dagger) Weapons work differently with shots. Like C Grade is x2, and B Grade is... I dunno x0.5? Or maybe 1 shot works across 2 strikes or something.
The crits are awesome with the speed though. With a succession of crits, some mobs just explode before they have time to retaliate. Especially if you 'part-nuke' the mob before you begin your strikes.
Rapid Fire is fine, but I'd trade it for the male pre-40's in a heart beat. If Stunning Shot (Soul Shock) was actually just that instead of some dodgy short-range (scarey short) fear skill, I might be a bit more positive about it. Ranged stun would have been nice to have if you could afford to carry bolts and a xbow (which are for some reason, 'heavier' than their bow counterparts. Eh..?)

In terms of skills, SB's are blast or at least they will be when Gracia comes out. Being able to use Shining Edge Indiscriminately is truly wonderful. One thing I've found with the skill is that it seems to never miss when it crits (can't really confirm this). So I tend to hit mobs initially from the back, like a dagger class (Back Stab! Ouch...).

I'm sure the Arbalester is also a lot of fun, to play. Most people on various internet sites say they are better than Soul Breakers. However some of the people I've met in-game are not so sure. I have limited perspective as I don't play one. I do have a Berserker alt which is fun, but the tool box just feels so empty next to my Soul Breaker. Especially now the soul's limiter has been more or less removed.

[Kihaku]

Well i agree that Soul Breaker use more shots than a berserker. But i played an Arbelester on PTS and it consumes lot more shots IMO, i always ran out of shots so fast (and bolts!).

And with a high crit rate on yoru Soul Breaker, 4 out of 5 hits are crits and the mob will die super fast so you actually didn't spend that much soulshots on it. The contra side on Soul breaker is, that you have to use both, soulshots AND spiritshots. But seriously, i don't care much as long as i have so many skills on my Soul Breaker.

Just became 46 yesterday and i lvoe the Dark Weapon Party Buff + Dark Weapon Self Buff + Surrender to Unholy + Death Mark + Soul of Pain :P
Pure red mobs die so fast.

[KnightOfDarkness]

Ancient Sword iwth focus with fcous passive+2min focus/dw buff on zerker=lots o powerful crits

[LordRiot]

[ QUOTE ]
And with a high crit rate on yoru Soul Breaker, 4 out of 5 hits are crits and the mob will die super fast so you actually didn't spend that much soulshots on it. The contra side on Soul breaker is, that you have to use both, soulshots AND spiritshots. But seriously, i don't care much as long as i have so many skills on my Soul Breaker.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah the crit rate is pretty insane. With Death Whisper buff (clan hall, say) mobs just explode. It's almost beneficial running +dex -str, but I'm not that crazy ^_^. I normally carry about 1k BSS +10K SS (B grade is lighter strangely. Took me till more or less A grade to get B Grade Weapons! Woot!). I wouldn't be too happy trying to carry bolts and a xbow, but I'll probably have to later on.

[ QUOTE ]
Just became 46 yesterday and i lvoe the Dark Weapon Party Buff + Dark Weapon Self Buff + Surrender to Unholy + Death Mark + Soul of Pain :P
Pure red mobs die so fast.

[/ QUOTE ]
Heh, you don't even need Surrender to be honest. With those dark buffs alone, Soul of Pain is lethal. Then at 58, with Annihilation Circle, the fun just continues. It's just a shame Dark Flame is comparatively weak and has such short range (the other 2 at 58 have a power of 82 while Dark Flame sits at 57)

[ QUOTE ]
Ancient Sword iwth focus with fcous passive+2min focus/dw buff on zerker=lots o powerful crits

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah those passives are indeed great, but then all the Kamael classes except the Arbalester get them, so I'm inclined to call them a non-factor in terms of crit evaluation.
Incidentally, I'd love to try out a Crit damage SA on an ancient, just to see the numbers ^_^. By the way, does anyone know if Crushing Pain or Contagion actually skill crit?

[Daroslaw]

no crits for berserker skills
tested on live 1-7x lvl =p

[AshleyHunter]

nice Sig Daroslaw but you can't use img try using The URL link thing

[Daroslaw]

thx =]

"fixed" lol

[LordRiot]

[ QUOTE ]
no crits for berserker skills
tested on live 1-7x lvl =p

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah that's a shame. At least the power levels on those 2 are ridiculous anyway. Especially ignoring Shield Defense. What's the re-use like on them? I just see myself chain them back-to-back like I do with Checkmate and Shining Edge when DM lands ^_^. Gl anything trying to survive Crushing and Contagion...
Incidentally I periodically make Zerker clannies weep with joy on raids. Sticking Pride on them when I occasionally feel like it, especially when Maximum Ability triggers, pushes their P atk to around 800 with just clan buffs.

It's quite nice having 2 +4 rapier SB's on a raid. That blue MA swirl just triggers all the friggin' time ^_^.

[Aahxx]

[ QUOTE ]

Incidentally, I'd love to try out a Crit damage SA on an ancient, just to see the numbers ^_^. By the way, does anyone know if Crushing Pain or Contagion actually skill crit?

[/ QUOTE ]

72 Female Soulbreaker here... the CD is not bad... but it makes me miss focus SA a ton. Focus is so much more usefull for a female SB'er than CD is. To bad you can't get a focus SA on A grade rapiers. But at least we can for S grade where it realy counts. Focus = lower cost on shots as well.

As for shot usage.. yeah.. we use a ton. And in A grade that starts to get ex*****ve. And will be even worse in S grade. And risking going +4 on A and higher is also a risk. I still use a +3 because I simply cannot afford to craft another one for A as I am saving for S. I will wait till S to try and craft two FB's to try and risk a +4 methinks. I have been manoring and saving a ton of mats just for that purpose.

As too our nukes.. the power variance is higher, and gets a bit of a nerf in CT2. Since they now will cost 5 souls to get a full power nuke (as opposed to 1 or 2). Nuking without souls makes the nukes pretty gimp. And may end up bieng not worth the mana to cast. I will run full tests after tonight and see. As I did not do many tests at 71 on PTS.

[LordRiot]

Ah thanks for posting Aahxx. On the Crit Damage SA, I was actually thinking of the Ancient Sword, since it does so much damager on crits. I'd never consider it for the crit crazy Rapier.

Also, I did my own PTS testing also on the nukes. No real stress-testing but enough to give me fairly solid results. I replicated as much as I could and came to the conclusion that there had been a huge nerf to the base damage. Not requiring souls for buffs and debuffs is fantastic, but unreliable damage is just annoying. Especially when, surprise, surprise, your trying to kill things.

I'd also like to ask you what armour sets you've used and which you've liked and disliked on a post 61 SB.

By the way, your forum actually inspired me to raise a strider. I didn't continue after 41 as it got expensive, and looking at creating tallum light (don't ask) scared the living crap out of me. I'm thinking of going back and continuing on my alt SK though.

[Aahxx]

My armor choice is NM light.... and will switch to my tallum light set when I sub Arb (since I have one allready, and dont want to spend the cash for a Maj set). The only reason for the Tallum over NM for arb sub is the mana regen for casting traps. Though my trap casting speed will drop in the tallum (like it's low enough allready LOL). So it will be a comprimize using the tallum, when Maj would be a better set for Arb.

The reasons for NM on SB is -1 con, +1 Dex with a built in passive VR that stacks with castable VR. With fast attacks this helps regen your hitpoints quickly esspecialy now that some mobs use soulshots and hit a ton harder. For PVP the NM is good for its 4% Mdef bonus and the sleep/hold resist helps when tanks want to "root" you. Fully buffed for PVP with Maj jewels I have over 1000 mdef (dont remember exact number). So this helps vs nuker survivablity. Mind you I do not use Tats .. as I find that would gimp me too much in PVP as my CP is low enough now as it is. And bieng in a clan at war, it simply would not be prudent for me to do so. One of these days I have to OE one of those T-shirts for the CP bonus. But farming Epps is a pain.. lol. Also I would recomend NM for Zerkers as well.

As to forum.. which one are you refering too? I am a mod at several, but I do not "run" any of them. Frankly I just do not have the time for html, etc..

[LordRiot]

Ah thanks. NM. Hmmm... Oh well a bit too late for that. Already walking another path so to speak. Also the cost of Nightmare/Maj is just... Yeah... I have almost 800 with BO set buffed, which should be ok for now and hopefully till I sub. Maj jewels on top of the Tallum+weapon+shots+hatchling is kinda pushing it, especially since selling leveled wolves is gonna' be a joke now vitality is here . Also L2 pvp doesn't exactly appeal much to tell the truth, so I think it'll be fine.

I was referring to the pet forum (can't remember which one specifically, if there are more than one you handle).

[Daroslaw]

Who will exp faster to 7x with SWS
Arbalester or Soul Breaker ?

[Nathaniel]

Get Arbalestor a common rapier as well as a xbow and it will xp faster. Open up with bow then swap when mob gets close

[Tamoh]

Okay, I'm jumping in here...made a fem. kam as an academy alt and (oops) I'm falling in love with her. ^_^

I find that at my current level (33) I can alternate between a x-bow and rapier pretty easily. I tend to favor my rapier...and for things such as kamaloka, I use my x-bow to keep my enemy at range when I'm being hit too hard.

SO, after 40, can a SB still use a x-bow with any effectiveness? I was thinking they could, since they get skills for it up to 40. Also, if I change my mind to (or sub) arbalester, does the same hold true for them? ...x-bow, then alternate with a rapier as needed? It's hard to judge at my level.

Thanks!

[Bartuulinho]

I'm an 54lvl Arbalester and shooting x-bow is nice in pvp and in partying (BoP conversion, +3), but for manoring or soloing I tend to use a rapier (Keshanberk Focus conversion) and I must say, that with this attack speed and crit rate (not mentioning the VR) I find it very effective even with no skills for it.

I haven't figured out which way is cheaper though, but I suppose x-bow with lots of skill usage should be cheaper. If You choose Your mobs wisely You should one-two shoot them using twin-shot.

My two cents...