Broad Sword / EA

[WuTang]

I borrowed the build from @Sarkany post and switched out the primary to Broad Sword.

 

My question is, do I take Parry or put Assault back in? Assault, aside from the team aspect and minor debuff resist doesn't do much except add an additional end drain to the build, IMO. But Parry seem superfluous, given the amount of defense that was built into the secondary. BTW, an amazing build! I'll attach the modified build with Parry in, it shores up Melee defense really well....

 

 

Thanks,

-WT

 

Stalker (Broad Sword - Energy Aura).mbd

[Lockpick]

I have a BS/EA and I do have Parry.  Parry is great during the leveling process especially if you plan to tackle TFs solo.  At 50 it may not be as good because your defense can be relatively high, but in my build it helps soft-cap my melee defense and I have a set which provides bonuses I want.  

[WuTang]

Hmm after a little more reading some have said that Ninja Blade is superior to Broad Sword, but after a look at them together I can't seem to find much difference at all. 

 

I went with Broad Sword because I assumed (wrongly) that the Excalibur sword skin wouldn't be available in any other set, it is in fact available with Ninja Blade as well. I haven't committed to the set yet, but anyone got clarification on why NB is better than BS?

Edited Tuesday at 11:56 AM by WuTang

[WuTang]

Mkay.... Yeah Ninja Blade's damage per activation is considerably better.

[Warshades]

37 minutes ago, WuTang said:

Mkay.... Yeah Ninja Blade's damage per activation is considerably better.

 

Broad Sword attacks are slow. Personal preferences may vary, but I also like the animations of NB a lot more, they're more smooth. You can also look at the damage per animation, NB is higher on most attacks because the animation times are shorter.

 

On 8/16/2025 at 4:48 PM, WuTang said:

My question is, do I take Parry or put Assault back in? Assault, aside from the team aspect and minor debuff resist doesn't do much except add an additional end drain to the build, IMO. But Parry seem superfluous, given the amount of defense that was built into the secondary. BTW, an amazing build! I'll attach the modified build with Parry in, it shores up Melee defense really well....

 

Kind of depends. The only positional damage types you won't soft cap with EA is psionic and toxic, and the former has very few attacks that are actually melee so I'd say that Divine Avalanche/Parry aren't really necessary since soft capping melee won't add much durability if you're already soft capping s/l/e/n/f/c. It does provide an easy place to put something like a LotG mule and still builds Assassin's Focus stacks so it's not a terrible pick either to include as part of an attack chain. While I don't have a BS or NB stalker, I would probably avoid taking Divine Avalanche or Parry if my secondary was EA for a final, lvl 50 build. Like @Lockpick pointed out, it would be a lot more useful while leveling.

 

Edit: regarding more end drain, that is the last thing you'll need to worry about with EA since you'll have access to Energize which reduces end use and Energy Drain which will fill your endurance easily.

Edited 14 hours ago by Warshades

[WuTang]

@Warshades Thanks for the detailed answer! Yeah once I did the math for the DPA between the two I found the difference. I'm gonna roll a NB today and see if I like it. I don't much like the animations for BS, my character is female and smoother animation has me intrigued.

[kelika2]

im getting angry at the idea of lethal defense being so high because of how parry works but being kinda weak to smashing but if you IO up for smash/lethal defense the lethal defense will be overcap and not needed to begin with

 

how do you do it