Surge Deathblade Build Guide
Last Updated:February 22, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Surge Deathblade Build Guide! This build revolves around generating Surge Stacks with multi-hit skills during Death Trance (Z) state to release an insane burst of damage with your Surge skill. After using Surge, your Death Orbs are refunded so you can repeat the stacking cycle instantly.
Surge Deathblade struggles to inflict reliable amounts of Stagger and Destruction, but compensates by bringing incredible amounts of potential damage to the table.
- Want a different twist on the playstyle around the Surge skill? Check out our Remaining Energy guide.
- For more information on some of the systems that make up your build, check out the guides below:
Builds
Raids
Kurzan FrontSkills Setup
- Surge (Z) is your main damage skill. It's used after reaching 60 Surge Stacks to deal massive damage with a front slash.
- Blade Dance, Turning Slash and Blitz Rush are your secondary damage skills as well as Surge stackers.
- Earth Cleaver is your Counter as well as your only Destruction point.
- Maelstrom is used as passive stack generation as well as Maelstrom party-buff provider.
- Wind Cut and Surprise Attack are your main Surge stackers. Surprise Attack also applies Synergy.
- Spincutter is a flexible mobility skill that also serves as a secondary Synergy and Surge stacker.
- Deathly Slash is often used every other cycle, either to generate or recover Surge Stacks.
Skills Setup
- Soul Absorber and Blitz Rush are your main Elite killers.
- Death Sentence, Twin Shadows, Moonlight Sonic and Turning Slash all have decent AoE and damage to kill lesser monsters.
- Maelstrom buffs your move and attack speed for faster skills, and generate Death Orbs faster to utilize Surge.
- Spincutter serves as a mobility skill and to break Floor 3 crystals quickly.
Recommended Engravings
- Preemptive Strike
- Contender
- Raid Captain
- Cursed Doll
- Magick Stream
This build is optimized and meant to be used only in Kurzan Front. For Ebony Cube please use a Raid build.
Identity & Gameplay
This build focuses on dealing massive amounts of burst damage repeatedly by quickly gathering 60 Surge Stacks during the Death Trance state and then using Surge. To achieve this, you cycle between low-cooldown, multi-hit skills that generate many stacks.
Limit Break doubles the damage of the skill if you cast Surge at 60 stacks.
Activating Death Trance (Z) grants you the following effects, based on the amount of orbs:
- 10/15/20% Attack Speed
- 10% Move Speed
- 8/16/24% Attack Power
- 50% Cooldown Reduction on activation
All attacks with a Back Attack affix receive +10% Crit Rate and +5% Damage when they land on the target's back-side indicator. It is important to position yourself accordingly as much as possible to take advantage of this.
Deathblade Identity
Rotation
Bear in mind that the rotations shown here aren't always achievable. You can and will need to improvise when you fail skills or in other scenarios when you aren't able to reach the proper amount of stacks in time.
Example Rotation #1
- For this rotation, you need to quickly enter Death Trance (Z) mode after casting Wind Cut. This will allow you to get ~4 stacks and also the cooldown reduction on Wind Cut for faster stack generation.
- In this rotation, you don't need to use Spincutter for stacks, so you can treat it as a mobility/recovery skill.
- Your only Synergy in this case comes from Surprise Attack so avoid missing it.
- Earth Cleaver can be skipped if Blade Dance and Blitz Rush are off cooldown, since the stacks aren't required (unless you missed some hits).
- You can use Surge just as you finish casting Surprise Attack, since the stacks will reach 60 before the skill hits.
Example Rotation #2
- This rotation is generally used if you had to cast Wind Cut late in your previous cycle, as it won't be available for the pre-cast rotation.
- Your Spincutter and Surprise Attack apply your Synergy, remember to keep it up at all times.
- You can use Surge just as you finish casting Surprise Attack since the stacks will reach 60 before the skill hits.
Example Rotation #3
- This rotation is ideal for burst scenarios as it does a bit more damage than your regular rotation. You want to use Atropine Potion right before your first Surge lands.
- Your Spincutter and Surprise Attack apply your Synergy, remember to keep it up at all times.
- You can use Surge just as you finish casting Surprise Attack since the stacks will reach 60 before the skill hits.
Example Rotation #4
- This rotation is ideal for burst scenarios as it does a bit more damage than your regular rotation. You want to use Atropine Potion right before your first Surge lands.
- You can alternatively use Blitz Rush instead of Blade Dance and skip Earth Cleaver, but this has the potential to Surge at 59 stacks if you don't wait for Maelstrom's last tick.
- You can use Surge just as you finish casting Surprise Attack since the stacks will reach 60 before the skill hits.
Gems
Gems are another significant aspect of your build, as they directly impact the damage and cooldowns of your skills. You can equip up to 11 gems at a time. Here are the ones you should focus on in order to maximize this build's potential, listed according to their priority.
Damage Gems
- Surge
- Blitz Rush
- Blade Dance
- Turning Slash
- Earth Cleaver
Cooldown Gems
- Wind Cut
- Surprise Attack
- Blade Dance
- Blitz Rush
- Earth Cleaver
- Spincutter*
Spincutter Cooldown gem is technically useless, since you shouldn't be using this skill more than once per cycle. You can replace it with a Wind Cut Damage gem for a very small dmg gain.
If you are using a Level 10 Annihilation Gem (T3) on Surge, do not convert it to Tier 4, as it would result in a damage loss. It should be replaced with a Lv. 9 Doomfire Gem (T4) (or higher) eventually.
Engravings
Engravings are a core part of your build. You can equip up to five at a time, freely swapping between them.
Engravings are listed in order of importance.
Recommended Setup
- Grudge
- Adrenaline
- Ambush Master
- Cursed Doll
- Keen Blunt Weapon
Alternative Setup
- Grudge
- Adrenaline
- Ambush Master
- Raid Captain
- Keen Blunt Weapon
Engravings Information
- Raid Captain has the potential to be stronger than Cursed Doll, but it requires a mix of external sources of Move Speed as well as considerate use of your Maelstrom skill.
- You need both Vernese Wine (3%) and Stronghold Feast (5%), as well as landing at least 63% of your damage inside the Dark Order window, which only lasts 6 seconds.
- You can utilize a Rage rune to further boost the efficiency, but the trigger chance is very low.
Tripods
Tripods affect your skills directly by providing utility, damage, cooldown reduction or gauge generation. You should level up these first:
- Wind Cut: Quick Prep
- Maelstrom: Dark Order
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls they have.
The primary goal is to get the main stats used by your build. After that, you should be aiming for Special Rolls to get more damage. Here are the effects you should look out for, in no particular order:
| Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
|---|---|
| Specialization | Specialization |
| Crit | Crit |
| Ambush | Crit Rate +3.4/4.2/5%. Crit Hit Damage +1.5%. |
| Circulate | Crit Damage +6.8/8.4/10%. Crit Hit Damage +1.5%. |
| Fervor | Damage +2/2.5/3%. Damage against Staggered foes +4/4.5/5%. |
| Hammer | Additional Damage +2.5/3/3.5%. Demon & Arch-Demon Damage +2.5%. |
| Wedge | Damage +4.5/5/5.5%. Skill Cooldown +2%. |
| Assail | On hit, Weapon Power +1,160/1,320/1,480 and Att. & Mov. Speed +1%. (max 6 stacks, 10s duration). |
| Precise | Weapon Power +7,200/8,100/9,000. When HP is above 50%, on hit Weapon Power +2,000/2,200/2,400 for 5s. |
| Superiority | Weapon Power +6,900/7,800/8,700. On hit, Weapon Power +130/140/150 (max 30 stacks, 120s duration). |
| Dexterity | Damage +2/2.5/3%. |
| Weapon Power | Additional Damage +3/3.5/4%. |
| Back Attack Damage +2/2.5/3%. | |
| Crit Rate +3.4/4.2/5%. | |
| Crit Damage +6.8/8.4/10%. | |
| Weapon Power +7,200/8,100/9,000. | |
| Dexterity |
Elixir
The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Master.
Credits
Written by Sekwah
Reviewed by Perciculum