NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "rufusmcdufus" from the forums
First off, apparently this build is very good for PvP. I just logged in a few minutes ago and said I was going to PvP until I died and then I'd run my dailies. I racked up 71 kills before I finally died (I ran out of spirit in the center of red team zerg and couldn't roll out). The build is also very solid for soloing dailies. I was able to solo all of Avengers tower dailies all the way up to Doom around level 32. I died a few times during phase 2 and Magneto took me out a couple times, but it was doable.
I am currently level 36
Blade Fighter:
Panther Slash: 1 (starting point)
Enervating Slash: 11 (max for level)
Predator's Aim: 20
Ritual Panther:
Panther Leap: 1 (starting point however I actually use this a lot)
Knockdown Strike: 1 (Preq)
Savage Strike: 6 (max for level)
Panther Speed: 10
Stealthy Escape: 1
Panther Avatar:
Panther Soul: 1
Panther Sight: 1
Vibranium Trap: 1
Panther Grace: 10 (max for level)
Blessing of Bast: 7 (just under max for level)
Dora Milaje: 5 (max for level)
This is without gear. My gear boosts stuff further.
Costume: Attack Speed Grades 1-3 for a total 19% Attack Speed
Medal: Magneto 21% spirit reduction and +20 damage
Artifact1: Starstone Tooth 5.3% Dodge, 12% chance to regain 240 hp and +276 hp
Artifact2: Hammer Ordanance +80 Dmg and 8% chance to knock back
Daggers: 41 dmg, 7% Attack Speed, +3 Leap, +1 Ritual Powers, 29% chance to bleed, 7% chance to freeze
Armor: Less exciting...getting +1 to panther avatar skills and some additional spirit reduction to Panther Avatar and Ritual costs. Some bonus spirit, negligible amount of dodge and 4% movement speed on my boots are also present. My defense is 535 and I have a ~25% total dodge.
Keybindings (using a Naga gaming mouse...I play 1 handed and do not use the extra hotkeys as the skills that I would want hotkeyed stop working once you switch back to your primary RMB skill)
LMB: Enerverating Slash
RMB: Panther Leap
1: Stealthy Escape
2: Vibranium Trap
3: Blessings of Bast
5: Dora Milaje
6: Savage Strike
9: Panther Speed
(If you are wondering why these numbers they are simply just the most comfortable ones for me to reach with my thumb).
Enervating Slash (rank 12, with 1 synergy point in panther slash and level 22 predator's aim)
249-314 Damage
-43.4% Move Speed
-18 Weaken
6.4s Duration
-550 Defense Reduction
12 Seconds
Attack Speed 3.0 (3.2 with Blessings active)
(plus 29% chance to cause bleed and 7% chance to freeze from equip)
This is my bread and butter skill. It doesn't sound like it does much damage (and each swing does not) however at an avg damage 281 with 3 swings per second this does about 844 damage. Which is still not impressive but remember it basically ignores defense so it will do the full damage. Still when farming I typically only hit once per target.
Playstyle (PvE): I start each level by summoning my ladies and putting up panther speed (16s of +32.9% move speed). I then run forward and roll into the trash mob and drop 1-2 traps quickly (which the mobs attack for me so there is no timer usually) and I spring out and start tagging each now stunned mob with enervating slash as my bodyguards show up and join the fight:
Dora Milaje (rank 7)
2.2 Minute Duration
4749 hp
327 Def
159-238 Dmg
I get 2 of these ladies for 20.7 spirit. Again the damage doesn't sound impressive but when adding both of them plus my damage we actually mow through things pretty fast and it does not really matter that we do not have any true AoEs (trap doesn't count is just for the stun really). When the pack is down to 1 or 2 guys I roll forward to the next and repeat. All the while trying make sure panther speed is always up and blessings of bast is always active if I'm not at 100% hp. My panther leap thanks to gear has a 2.6s stun and so I can quickly use that to keep trash out of the fight (and its my favorite gap closer during combat unless there is a lot of projectiles in which case I will stealth roll). In a group I play similarly, staying slightly ahead of the rest of the group and keeping things debuffed and clustered so that AoEs can 1-2 shot mob packs.
For boss fights I resummon my Kingsguard and refresh panther speed and charge in and debuff the boss with enervating strike. I then use Savage Strike sparingly hitting once then about 2-3 seconds of enervating and then I strike again. The reason being I do not want to overspend my spirit as I always need to keep blessings going, need to resummons the Dora as they fall, keep panther speed up and have enough spirit to escape roll to safety if need be. Against harder bosses that can 1-2 shot me I run in a circle around them while my Dora Milaje beat face occasionally charging in as often as safe to strike and debuff. I usually get in 2 punches and then dart back out, again watching my spirit and making sure I always have 2 ladies in the fight.
My Opinions on the Difficulty of Soloing Bosses in Dailies:
Shocker: Very Easy
Doc Ock: Very Easy
Task Master: Easy (his shield throw and dash hurt but not too bad, never in much danger)
The Hood: Moderate (he is easy to kill but his bullets can kill me in 2-3 shots at range so I have to pay attention and roll a bit more)
Magneto: Hard (don't think I need to explain this one)
Sinister: Moderate (his attacks are avoidable but they do hurt and occasionally you have to worry about X-men zerg) Wizard: Hard (those ranged attacks hurt...stealthy escape, panther speed and leap are your friends)
Modok: Hard (not that he is difficult he just takes a long time due to all the trash and his teleporting)
Doom (phase 1): Easy (just face tank and spam bast)
Doom (phase 2): Very Hard (STAY VISIBLE! He will 2 shot you. You need to move constantly, it is a long fight I die at least once usually)
Doom (phase 3): Hard (this is actually much easier solo than in a group as there are less blue fields of death...stay mobile, keep your ladies in the fight and dart in and savage strike)
Tactics (PvP): This build is extremely fast...same rules apply as with farming always keep up your panther speed and always make sure you have enough spirit to spam roll and bast away. So far no hero has been able to keep up with me when I decide that I need to tactically retreat (T'challa doesn't run!). My game plan in pvp is:
1) Catch them!
2) Debuff them with enervating slash (43% move and 550 armor debuffs?)
3) Savage Strike ...usually 1 of these is enough, if it is a tanky character you could need as many as 3. I am going to go over each hero in a bit).
4) Make sure they die...the strike usually will finish the job but sometimes you will need to go tag them again with enervating slash to seal the deal.
Disclaimer on Savage Striike: A lot of people are complaining that this skill is OP, imbalanced and possibly bugged. I fully admit it is a very strong damage skill.
Why is this skill so strong? It's because the DoT is affected by +dmg gear per tic plus you have removed most of their defense.
Savage Strike (Rank 8 with +141 dmg from gear)
361-481 dmg
plus 472 bleed per second
1.5 attack speed
13.3 spirit
Now using a training dummy I can see this gets 7 tics however they are faster than 1 per second seems to last about 3 seconds and each tic is doing 273 to the training dummy.
This suggests an average damage of 421 for the strike and a combined total DoT of 1911. 2332 damage in total. This is a respectable amount of damage. While I do not think this should be nerfed too hard as we need this skill. I do think some tweaking is actually justified and my suggestion is just to examine and adjust how +dmg from gear affects DoTs rather than focus on savage strike specifically. If I wasn't so spirit greedy and used my +80 Modok medal instead of Magneto's this would take each tic up to ~330 adding roughly 480 additional damage to the skill!
Hero Matchup:
Tanks (Colossus/Captain America/Thing/Ms Marvel): They will come to you. Making them easy to execute your plan, however they have a lot of hp and will take a bit longer. When they get hurt and try to run these characters tend to be slower and easy to chase down.
Hulk: Hulk is not a tank. He will leap and smash and throw a fit that will look very impressive but blessings of bast will negate it. 2 well timed savage strikes should take him down.
Deadpool: Bodyslide is infuriating. Against a competent player you will have to chase them down. They will run out of spirit before you do so eventually you will catch them at which point you need to kill them. If they escape they will quickly heal back up. Often they are not worth engaging unless no one else is around.
Black Panther: The mirror match! Blessing of Bast is your best friend. You are going to have to spam it...not just to negate Savage Strikes DoT but to turn off predators aim and the slow debuffs. Enjoy getting a taste of your own medicine!
Dodgers: (Black Widow/Daredevil/Spidey) These guys are actually more difficult then the tanks as your savage strikes will constantly miss. Additionally, it will be hard to land an enervating slash to slow them down. These characters tend to be almost as fast as you so catching them can be rough. If you connect though they should go down quickly. Don't let them escape.
Wolverine: His damage is higher than yours. His healing is stronger and passive. He is almost as fast as you. His ultimate also revives him so watch out for that. I often summon my Dora Milaje in this fight to even the odds. More so than any other character if Wolverine gets away he will heal almost instantly.
Ranged Characters: (Ironman/Cyclops/Hawkeye/Storm/Scarlet Witch/Rocket Racoon/Punisher) I'm sad to say it, but these characters absurdly easy to take down unless they are flying. They do insane damage but stealthy escape makes it very easy to avoid damage while your absurd speed will close the distance very fast. If you tag them they will fall.
Jean Grey: Very easy to take down.
Phoenix: Stay away! You can't hurt her.
Thor/Cable: Similar to the ranged characters but a bit more durable. Cables teleport makes him similar to dead pool and thor can both fly and actually do some damage up close.
NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "rufusmcdufus" from the forums
