Praxic Blade Buddies

The same two buddies as the Getaway Artist seat, with a lightsaber instead of a gun. The subclass is identical down to the fragments; what changes is that you close the distance and let the Artifact turn a melee weapon into the whole kit.

It is worth having both written down, because they are not the same build in practice. One stands off and spreads unravel with an SMG. This one walks into the middle of a room, and every fragment in it is chosen for a Warlock who is already there.

Written for strikes, dungeons and Grandmaster-tier content. There is a boss-damage pivot below, but the Loadout above is the roaming one.

How it plays

Eat the grenade for the Arc Soul, Phoenix Dive for Hellion, and start swinging. Left, left, left, heavy.

That combo is not decoration. Sword Storm Combo turns three light attacks plus a heavy into Penumbral Blades that circle you, damaging and disorienting everything in reach, and sword final blows keep them out. Meanwhile Singularity Blade weakens whatever you hit and bursts weaken outwards on a kill, so the room is debuffed before your buddies have picked their targets.

Facet of Protection is doing real work here in a way it never quite does at range — you are surrounded by design, so it is always on. Facet of Hope keeps Phoenix Dive coming back off the elemental buffs you always have, and between Devour and amplified you always have one.

Ammo is the thing that would normally kill a melee build, and Kinetic Synthesis kills the problem instead: sustained Kinetic damage generates a brick that feeds the Blade and grants special and heavy progress on the side. You can run double special plus a heavy and never think about it.

Why the gear

The Praxic Blade sits in the Kinetic slot, which is why the Kinetic half of the Encrypted Data Disk lines up so well. Set it to Balanced Form for health on rapid final blows, Forceful Blade for raw damage, and the Impact Core — that last one makes melee damage apply the element of your equipped Super, so under Song of Flame you scorch with every swing and ignite anything you have to work at. Hyperblade is the trait worth chasing: free amplified, and extra lunge after you block.

The rest of the Artifact is bookkeeping that happens on its own. Kinetic Rupture leaves ruptures on powerful combatants that stagger when popped — you will trip them with the camera or someone else will shoot them. Dielectric converts the jolt your Arc Soul is spreading into Bolt Charge. Combination Argent Blade empowers the sword after a paused light attack, which you will hit by accident.

The armour is chosen for stats, not for a set. It comes out as a Bushido two-piece because that is what rolled well, and the source is explicit that any set works — anything defensive, or nothing. The rail below counts what is actually worn rather than what was intended.

The Recluse and the Refurbished A499 are the free half of the Loadout. Kinetic Synthesis means whatever you put there stays loaded.

The boss-damage pivot

Same subclass, same armour, same stats. Swap the Super to Nova Bomb: Cataclysm or Needlestorm, swap the Artifact to the Hunter’s Journal, and swap the weapons to Izanagi’s Burden and the Refurbished A499 with an auto rifle in the energy slot for Sustained Fire and Targeting Autoloader.

Which Super depends on the fireteam rather than on the numbers: Prismatic Transfer buffs everyone whose Super type differs from yours, so you take the one nobody else brought. If you want that pivot as its own seat with the full damage rotation, it is the Mataiodoxía Needlestorm build.

The spread

200 Grenade, ideally off base stats plus grenade fonts, because that is the buddies’ damage. Then as much Weapons as will fit — you are swinging a weapon and you never want to be out of ammo. Super after that, then Class and Melee in whichever order suits you.

Health is the dump stat.