Changing The Way You Slay<br/>With Chain Blades Changing The Way You Slay<br/>With Chain Blades
Changing The Way You Slay
With Chain Blades

In brief

  • The chain blades refresh arrives on December 2.
  • Expect role-driven combo changes, refinements to specials and mods, and quality of life improvements.
  • A new combo now adds wound damage ability to chain blades.

Stylish Simplicity

The chain blades are one of Dauntless’ most iconic weapons. Known for their high mobility and attack speed, they are a popular weapon choice among Slayers old and new.

Chain blades are highly versatile and noticeably stylish. However, the chain blades move set, specials, and mods were fairly straightforward and didn’t encourage much combat diversity once you had mastered their ins and outs. Many of you had just one “good” combo and one “good” special you always wound up using.

The Refresh

To make slaying with chain blades more engaging, we decided to give this well-loved weapon an extensive refresh. This involved giving each combo a combat role, balancing and refining the specials and mods to provide more effective and impactful build choices, and implementing various quality of life fixes.

Let’s dive into all of the exciting new changes we have in store for you!

Weapon Mechanics

Meter Generation

Each individual attack now generates a fixed amount of meter.

Previously, meter generation was relatively unpredictable as it was based on the damage dealt. This system sometimes led to situations where it became impossible to build meter with attacks, such as during battle with a shielded Boreus.

Momentum

The little pips under the weapon meter now have an official name — momentum.

Their functionality has not changed. You still gain them by filling up your meter, and use them to perform specials.

Moves and Combos

Bladed Edge (Light-Light-Light-Light-Light)

The classic light combo hasn’t changed, but it now boasts the best meter generation rate among all attacks. Land every hit in this quick combo to completely fill your meter. A full meter will give you 1 momentum.

Blade Spin (Light-Light-Light-(hold)Heavy-Light)

Blade Spin

Blade Spin gets a new focus as the chain blades’ go-to damage combo. This combo will allow you to inflict a large number of powerful hits if you seize the right opportunity. Previously, if the Behemoth you were attacking moved even a slight bit during your combo, you would not be able to continue hitting it as you were immobilized during combo execution. Now, you can walk and turn slowly while spinning the blades to continue your attack.

We increased the overall damage output and decreased the stamina consumption for this combo, so while the actual number of hits in the spinning attack has been slightly reduced, you will now find this combo more efficient than before.

The final light attack after the spin can also chain into the third light attack of either Bladed Edge or this combo itself, giving you a chance to quickly reposition for another go, or to rapidly build up some additional meter.

Lacerating Onslaught (Heavy-Heavy-Heavy)

Lacerating Onslaught

Chain Fling has been replaced with the new Lacerating Onslaught combo, a series of brutal, close-range attacks that inflict wound damage. Until now, the war pike was the only weapon with the inherent ability to inflict wounds. We added the wounding mechanic to this combo to bring more variety to the kind of damage you can do with chain blades.

Chain Pull (forward+Heavy) - NEW

Chain Pull

Chain Pull has been separated from the Reaper’s Dance and Insatiable Dance specials to become a basic part of the chain blades move set. Making this part of the basic move set adds a lot of flexibility, and is not dependent on the special you’ve chosen to equip.

While you are away from a Behemoth, press a direction and heavy attack at the same time to throw your chains forward and pull yourself toward the target.

Swinging Blades (Light-Light-Heavy-Light) - REMOVED

We wanted each combo to have a distinct combat role. When we updated the combos, we found that there wasn’t a niche for Swinging Blades that wasn’t already served by another combo, so we decided to remove it.

Specials

Reaper’s Dance

Along with separating the chain pull move from this special, we also adjusted its momentum-building mechanic.

Follow up the push-off with a light attack to dash back in, consuming 1 momentum.

Follow up with a heavy attack to consume all momentum and perform a chain slam, with damage increasing greatly for each momentum consumed.

The changes add some tactical decisions to this special. Do you use it to avoid attacks and reposition, conserving your stamina? Or do you save your momentum for one big hit, potentially staggering the Behemoth at a key moment? The choice is yours, Slayer.

Insatiable Dance

We made the same chain pull and momentum mechanic changes to Insatiable Dance as we did to Reaper’s Dance.

In addition, the healing orbs generated will now provide a damage boost to Slayers that get healed to full health, or to full-health Slayers if no one is missing any health.

Cruel Riftstrike

Cruel Riftstrike

This special retains the ability to teleport through Behemoths with invulnerability but now leaves a damage-over-time debuff on the part hit by its attack. When this debuff expires, it deals additional damage for any other such debuff that is active at the time. With careful timing and aim, you will be capable of dealing a massive amount of damage with this special.

Mods

Serrated Blades

This mod now gives your light attacks a chance to increase the wound damage of your next 4 lacerating attacks.

Lightweight Chain

In addition to increasing the length of your chains for moves such as Blade Spin and Chain Pull, this mod also increases the damage of Chain Pull and grants additional meter when it hits. This makes it perfect for fighting fast and agile Behemoths like the Kharabak or the Rezakiri!

Demolition Blades

The damage bonus now applies to minions and fauna, as well as Behemoth-created objects. You will gain 1 momentum whenever you kill any of these creatures or objects.

When Can I Play It?

The Dauntless chain blades refresh launches Thursday, December 2 as part of our 1.8.3 update.

Patch notes 1.8.3 - Call to Arms

Get ready to change the way you slay with updated combos, specials and mods. Whether you are a veteran chain blades main or new to the weapon, be sure to give them a (blade) spin and let us know what you think! We’ll be on the lookout for your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, and Discord.