Welcome to another CoA 1.0 build by DoomGodFiz! These guides are built and put together for enjoyment of the character and gameplay. These are not built for the meta, tier listings, or for any TTK rankings. That said, all of my builds are viable for all content.

 

 

** Disclaimer **

My builds are put together while playing on the Council of Ancients server. This server offers boosted Exp gains, CoolDown reductions, higher drop rates, and a few other percs. It's a server designed to be fast paced for those that have lives outside of gaming. While they should also be viable on other servers out there, they are specifically designed for this server. So keep that in mind when referencing my builds. 

 

Ahh, the one character in the game that upon his release drove the community crazy for one very specific reason, his signature ability. The only character that could truly one-shot (with minimal prep) any Cosmic Terminal boss, and put up great times on the TTK boards. The definition of a One-Hit Wonder, the Half-Vampire / Half-Human, and a character that Wesley Snipes pulled off perfectly... Blade!

He was built to do exactly what he does, rip through bosses without issue. This of course led to some backlash because he could do things no other character could. I've played Blade quite often, he is my Cosmic Terminal farmer.

With this build I was able to carve my way through the Cosmic Trial, take down all cosmic bosses without issue, save Ultron and the Dimensions Collide terminal. You will also do well in patrols, especially if there is a large group. 

 

** Talents, Rotation, and Power Bar **

 

For our Talents, we go stright down the left side.  

• Never Sated
  
  • This gives us a Death Revive Cooldown, removes the damage reduction while starving, and a stacking buff that boosts our Damage, Critical Strike, and Brutal Stirke Damage when we activate The Serum. For each stack, we get a +5% Damage bonus and a +10% Critical/Brutal Damage bonus. This caps out at 10 stacks, giving us a whopping +50% and +100% Respectivly. 
• Vicious Wounds
  • This just boosts our DoT Bleed damage and slows enemies down while they bleed. 
• Life of the Party
  • I toyed with all the talents on this tier to try and build a Single Shot assassin that could also do well at clearing larges groups of mobs. This one outshines the others as we will most likely ALWAYS be starving, thus giving us a gauranteed Critical Hit and double damge to those in the center of our landing zone. 
• Patient Hunter
  • If you really wanted, you could swap this for Expanded Arsenal to boost our damage with Pump-Action or Whittle into Kindling. But the +20 damge bonus to My Namesake while starving is just too sweet to pass up on boss rushes. 
• Vampire Hunter
  • While those small percentages may not look the best with +2% and +5%, when trippled it's a flat 6% Crit and Brutal Strike chance and a +15% Base Damage bonus. With our healing on hit, the +15% Damage Received isn't an issue. 

 

There really are no talent changes needed based on content save one, and it's a big one! If you are running Danger Room Scenarios you will want to avoid the Challenge "Test of Endurance" as we will kill ourselves VERY quickly, or swap Never Sated for In Control. I cannot count how many times I've killed myself during the Test of Endurance with Blade. It hurts, ALOT!

 

The way I have the power bar set up, is the same as I have it when I play (as I do with all my builds). I'll go over the main rotation. 

1. While we are running through trash, we want to use our LMB ability Whip Lash. This will cause us to become starving rather quickly, apply our DoT on trash so they fall after we have moved past them, and quickly build stacks of Bloodlust for our Signature attack when needed. 

2. We want to use Party Crasher off cooldown to apply Vulnerability and basically instantly slaughter groups of trash. 

3. Toss out a Hyper-Toxin Grenade to apply a Vulnerability that boosts oure DoT by 25%. 

4. Against Yellow Elites and higher, we want to bust out our trusty Pump-Action and show em what it feels like to get a double barrel to the face. 

5. Stake Thrower or Stake Through The Heart are your choices for an Execute. Both do added damge to a target that is bleeding (which they all will be thanks to Whip Lash. I prefer the ranged option as it has 2 charges and can rapidly be shot to do some massive damage. You'll want to use this off cooldown in situations that it is needed. 

Note. When coming up to a boss fight, be sure to pop your Med-Kit to go invisible while entering the boss room.

6. The Serum is part one of our Assassination attack. While we have 10 stacks of Bloodlust from Never Sated, we activate this to boost our Damage by 50% and our Critical and Brutal Damage by 100% for 8 seconds. 

7. My Namesake our signature move, the ultimate boss killer. This is 10 hits of pure death. Let's show you the numbers shall we? 

• We have 9 hits of normal damage that get the following boosts:
  • 15% Flat Damage Bonus from just using The Serum
  • 50% Flat Damage Bonus from using The Serum while having 10 stacks of Bloodlust
  • 10% Flat Damage Bonus from the enemy being Vulnerable (if you used Party Crasher to start the fight)
  • 20% Damage bonus from Patient Hunter
  • 15% Base Damage bonus from Vampire Hunter
  • This gives those first 9 hits a total Damage Bonus of +115%
• The 10th hit, the reason why Blade is the bad ass that he is gets the following boosts. 
  • +115% Damage Bonus from everything above
  • A Gauranteed Brutal Strike
  • 100% Brutal Strike Damage from using The Serum while having 10 stacks of Bloodlust
  • This means that our final hit of this flurry of blows will down any Cosmic Terminal boss there is within seconds. 
• These numbers do NOT include bonuses from any of our equipment. So those just add to the awesomeness of the attack.

 

As far as alternate Power options go, the only one that's worth mentioning is using Whittle into Kindling in place of Pump-Action. 

• Pump Action is a heavy hitting short ranged area attack that deals some pretty masive damge and is boosted while we are starving. 
• Whittle into Kindling is a fast hitting long ranged area attack that deals decent damage and applies Grievous Wounds, which is our Bleed DoT. 

So the coice is yours, both are strong options and I tend to swap them in and out based on what I'm doing. 

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** Gear **

** The above items are by no means the end all be all for this character, they are simply what I find works best for my build. **

 

Our main stats with our favorite Dhampir are Strength and Fighting,  I tend to focus more on Fighting over Strength for the boost to our Critical Rating. 

For those pesky RNG Affixes that we have no control over, I usually go for the following order: 

• Brutal Strike Rating
• Brutal Strike Damage
• Attack Speed
• Critical Strike Rating
• Critical Strike Damage
• Fighting
• Strength

 

ARTIFACTS: So what I have listed above is what I'm currently running though not all cosmic. That said, you do have options. All three can be found with a Cosmic Variant. 

• Gem of the Kursed use this in place of Sabretooth's Furry Mane. You'll lose some defensive capability, but gain a ton of offensive power.
• Spider-Clone Serum this will give you some survivability if you find you are meeting an early end.
• Sacred White Gorilla Necklace this will also add to your survivability. 

 

BLESSINGS: With this build, this is one of the few times I'll run 4x Blessings of Hela. However, if you want Odin's Blessing, use the following:

• Blessing of Hela (Offensive)
• Blessing of Volstagg (Defensive)
• Blessing of Balder (Utility)
• Blessing of Odin

 

URU RUNEWORD: If you are having issues getting the Doop Runes for this, or having really bad rolls you can always go with:

• Heartbreaker

 

MEDALLION: I'd consider this the best option with this build. You can also use one of the following:

• S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Medallion for a more offensive alternative
• HYDRA Agent Medallion for a more defensive alternative

 

RELIC: As Blade is all about damage output, we will want what I have above. Though there are two alternates that prove useful:

• Relic of Wakanda for its boost to DoT 
• Relic of Xandar for its boost to Ranged Damage

 

LEGENDARY: As we want all the Brutal Stirke we can muster, this is the best option. However, the Savage Axe of Ares is a solid second.

 

RING: So, there are a few choices for your ring, and I'll list them here. Note that the ring in the build above is the one I'd go with. 

• Bloodstone Demonband as always, a perfect one of these is your best option (max stat for Grade 63 Ring is given):
  • +1 Fighting
  • +1 Strength or +441 Defense Rating
  • +294 Brutal Strike Rating
  • +989 Brutal Damage Rating
  • +279 Physical Damage Rating
  • Regenerate 63 Health when defeating a Demon
• Ring (offensive) a solid rolled Ring with 2 of the following (in order from most important to least):
  • +3 Fighting (or Strength)
  • +1500 Brutal Damage Rating
  • +642 Brutal Strike Rating
  • +9% Attack Speed
  • +900 Critical Damage Rating
• Industry City Signet (physical)
• Kingpin's Ring of Power
• Sling Ring of the Kamar-Taj (physical)
• Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Class Ring

All of the above rings are solid choices. The reason I prefer the Offensive Ring is that it's simply the easiest option to find and offers a nice +3 to one of our Main Stats along with it.

 

UNIQUES: This is always the section I get called out on. However, what I list is what I've tested, what I find works, and adds your own flare. I'm always open to suggestions, and will gladly test them out; but given the build, these work out well. 

For our Enchants, we want ARMOR Critical Damage in slots 1 and 5, and ARMOR Health in slots 2, 3, and 4.

For our Challenge Bonus, I go with +1 Fighting in all 5 slots. 

 

CATALYST: **Disclaimer** If, and that's a big IF you happen to find one with both Durability and Fighting on it, that's your go to, hands down! The other two stats wouldn't matter, nor would the cosmic as the +6 to our core stats would outshine anything else. I want to add that I have seen others link such items in chat or Discord, but have not seen anything personally. That said, what I have above is always a solid choice, but others will make a solid arguement for one of the below affixes.  

 The only real option I see is for those that want to go Cosmic with Blade. In that case you'll want one that has:

• 10% Experience gain.

 

INSIGNIA: Punnisher is beautiful for this build, but there are other options:

• Insignia of Mockingbird for the Attack Speed boost
• Insignia of Blade for some survivability against bleeding enemies
• Insignia of Shang-Chi for an attribute bonus and Attack Speed
• Insignia of Taskmaster for a general overall boost. 

 

Our faithful pet (the Pet I have above is the optimal stats you'd want to have for each catagory).

• Green: +8% Base Health
• Blue: I like the +5% SIF as he is my Cosmic Term Runner. 
• Purple: +10% Brutal Damage
• Yellow: +4% Brutal Damage and +4% Attack speed on hit
• Orange: +3 Fighting

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** INFINITY **

** Infinity Points on CoA is a bit different as there is no hard cap on how many points you can earn. So rather than putting points in the Infinity Tab, I list what I consider top priority before filling out the rest. **

 That said, here is the priority for Human Torch:

1. Attack Speed / Movement Speed
2. Brutal Strike Damage
3. Critical Strike Damage
4. Critical Strike Chance
5. Brutal Strike Chance
6. Fighting

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** TEAM-UP **

** Team-Ups are by no means build breaking. Always use who you like, but I'll give the reasons why I choose whom I choose and some solid alternate options **

 

 

Wolverine (or any of his variants) is easily the best choice for any Brutal Damage build. While set to passive he grants the following:

Brutal Strike Rating +114

Brutal Damage Rating +456

Health Regeneration per second

Health gains on enemy defeat

A Team-Up Away Power that grants a +2% Attack and Movement Speed bonus

A Team-Up Away Power that buffs us with +57 Critical Hit Rating

A Team-Up Away Power that buffs us with an additional Health Regen per second

 

For an Active Team-Up, it's really up to you as they all work out quite well, but two stand out in my opinion: 

Agent Coulson takes the award for best Active DPS hands down. 

 

Rescue is, in my opinion, the best Active Healing Support you can find. She also does quite well in a passive role for healing.

 

For a more passive approach, and those that like to keep their Team-Ups locked away, we have the following: 

She is the award winner for best overall debuffing and crowd control support.

 & 

These two fit the bill for solid support and healing, along with decent DPS. 

Groot is going to be your option for devensive buffs and healing support. His healing falls short compared to Strange and Clea however. 

 

Summoners, my favorite kind of build to play, and we have so many sweet options to choose from. All of these options can be used passively or actively offering different benefits on both sides. 

Actively: She is a summoner that offers decent DPS and 2 summons of her own.

Passively: She offers +152 Damage Rating and +12% Summon Power Base Damage, along with activated summons and a Critical Hit buff. 

 & 

Actively: Our favorite Agents are summoners that bring a Turret and two summons to the table and offers mid range DPS.

Passively: He give us +152 Damage Rating and +12% Summon Power Base Damge, an activated Turret and Summon, along with an activated Defense and Deflect Rating buff. 

 

Actively: She summons a swarm of demons to fight alongside us, deals out some decent damage, and has a life steal ability.

Passively: She summons that same swarm of demons, offers +152 Damage Rating, +10% Summon Power Base Damage, and 33 health on hit. 

 

As far as DPS goes, passively you'll want to find a Team-Up that supports your character either with an Attribute Bonus or Stat bonuses. There is however one unique option that I sometimes play with. 

This Team-Up is unique in that it does not have an active setting. All of its powers are buffs and additions to when you call in an Air Strike by way of "summoning" your Team-Up. 

In the Companion (Active-Left) Role it offers a +3% Damage Reduction

In the Assit (Away-Center) Role its Air Stirke gets a +50% Damage Bonus and a 10% Cooldown Reduction

In the Extreme Conditioning (Away-Right) Role it offers a flat +228 Damage Rating buff. 

It's Air Strike can be used in any role, and the buffs that it gains from its powers apply to the Air Strike in any role. 

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** Closing **

 

At the end of the day, this is a game, and games are all about having fun, so play around and enjoy! I want to thank you for taking the time to read throuhg my guide and I hope you check out my other builds. I'll eventually have one build for each character. 

 

** Updates **

• 04/02/2026 - Finalized for CoA 1.0!