Alright folks, buckle up. Decided to finally put those fancy Bladelock weapons through the wringer myself today. Heard lotsa talk, needed to see what actually works when stuff gets messy.
The Setup Phase
First thing, loaded up my saved game. My guy’s a Pact of the Blade fiend warlock, obviously. Went to camp, found Withers, paid the respec gold – dude charges way too much, whatever. Locked in Charisma at 17, grabbed the Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast invocations like everyone says, then the Thirsting Blade one at level five. Figured I’d be swinging this magic sword a lot.
The Shopping Spree & First Swings
Hightailed it to some merchants I remembered. Started grabbing stuff that looked pointy and supposedly pact-bindable:
- Sword of Screams: Picked this up early, bound it. Looked cool. Swung it at some goblins outside the grove. Hits were okay, the psychic scream thing sounded neat, but honestly? Didn’t seem to do much extra damage. Felt kinda basic after the third fight.
- Charge-Bound Warhammer: Found this guy later. Bound it. Idea sounded great – shock people nearby! Yeah, didn’t happen much. Felt slow, heavy. My lock ain’t exactly built like a brick house. Kept missing, felt bad. Dumped it after one rough fight where I whiffed twice. Embarrassing.
Kinda disappointed already. What was everyone raving about?
The “Let’s Try Ranged” Phase (And Why It Sucked)
Felt desperate. Saw that Infernal Rapier locked away. Couldn’t get it yet. Remembered you could bind ranged weapons too? Found a decent-looking heavy crossbow somewhere. Bound it real quick. Thought, “Cool, might Eldritch Blast and then pew-pew!” Nope.
- Lost my Eldritch Smite. Game just said “nah.” Biggest gut punch. My main warlock punch gone? No way. Took one shot with the damn thing, damage felt weak, felt naked without my Smite. Immediately bound back to the Sword of Screams, just to have something.
The “Okay, Seriously?” Phase & The Winner
Pretty annoyed at this point. Started combing through my loot again. Remembered this unassuming thing I picked up ages ago: the Knife of the Undermountain King. Just a shortsword. Looked kinda plain.
- Bound it more out of frustration than hope. Hooboy. Changed everything.
- That reroll-on-a-miss thing? Turned my whiffs into near-constant hits. Felt smooth.
- The crit range? Started landing these nasty surprise hits way more often. Paired PERFECTLY with my Eldritch Smite – crit with that? Yeah, things just… vaporized.
- Lost the fancy scream effects? Didn’t care. Hitting stuff consistently and deleting them on a crit felt amazing. Plus, shortsword finesse meant my mediocre Strength didn’t matter. Just pure Charisma magic.
Went back out, found a tougher fight. Proceeded to dice everything in sight. That feeling? Priceless.
The Takeaway
Lessons learned the hard way:
- Fancy visual effects mean jack if you can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
- Losing Smite for ranged ain’t worth it. Bladelock needs that punch.
- Consistency is king. That Knife making my attacks actually land felt 1000x better than any bonus damage effect missing half the time.
- Simple sometimes wins. Who knew a plain-looking shortsword would be the champ?
So yeah. After all that testing, all that gold spent respec’ing and experimenting? Knife of the Undermountain King. Hands down. My lock ain’t switching it out anytime soon. Practice beats theory every time.