Soulframe Lightning Mage Build (Ode Tempest)

Welcome to our Lightning Mage Build for Soulframe. In this guide, we’ll explain how you can create a powerful Lightning Mage build using the Ode Tempest Pact, that deals heavy ranged lightning damage using the Odiac weapon. The build is good for both solo and co-op play.

Ode Tempest is one of the Pacts (classes) available in Soulframe. It can deal lots of bonus Voltaic damage to enemies. While it fits most naturally into a melee playstyle, we can quite easily repurpose it to fight with the Odiac, a magick weapon that allows you to shoot lightning balls at enemies. This is currently the only way to make a full lightning build in Soulframe.

This build is up to date with Soulframe Preludes 11. We will continue to update it as Soulframe evolves in the run-up to its full release.

Table of Contents:

• Ode Tempest Overview
  • Arcanics
  • Playstyle
  • How to Unlock Ode Tempest
• Best Virtues
• Best Equipment
  • Best Armour
  • Best Weapons
• Best Runes & Totems
• Combat Arts Upgrade Priority
  • Magick
• Ode Tempest Upgrade Priority

Ode Tempest Pact Overview

Lightning cracks where thunder bodes. Voltaics strike against their own. Rebind your arm to Tempest Ode. Harness the power of Ode’n technology. Though freed you are, your Tempest training may prove useful still. May they rue the day they stole your frame.

Ode Tempest is one of the Pacts (classes) in Soulframe. It has an affinity with the Courage virtue, so Ode Tempest players will typically benefit from investing in Courage.

This is arguably the strongest Pact in Soulframe because its damage output is very high (when built and played correctly). Once sufficiently levelled up, you unlock the Atmos Sphere arcanic, which gives you temporary immunity to most attacks when activated. Ode Tempest allows you to unleash bursts of devastating damage, and you don’t need to worry about defending yourself in the process, thanks to Atmos Sphere.

It’s a little tricky to obtain Ode Tempest, however. You must be in either the Alca’s Children or Silent Rose faction, increase your Faction Rank to Rank 5 (which costs 25,000 Faction Standing to accomplish), then spend another 4,000 Faction Standing to unlock the Ode Tempest Pact. You can then craft the Pact by visiting Tuvalkane in Nightfold. This process means you’ll have to complete a great deal of Faction Tale quests to attain enough Standing to unlock the Ode Tempest.

Ode Tempest Arcanics

The Ode Tempest Pact has the following Arcanics:

Ode Tempest Playstyle

At low level, Ode Tempest doesn’t feel too special to play – it just seems like an elemental version of the Tethren Pact.

But once you have unlocked all three of your Arcanics, the effect is transformative, and the class becomes an almost unstoppable force.

Seismor is the least important Arcanic – it is a decent knockback effect that can be used to create space for yourself, but it doesn’t do anything remarkable.

The combination of Astra Sphere and Atmos Sphere is the bread and butter of the Ode Tempest class, and this synergy is what makes the class so powerful. Astra Sphere gives you a powerful damage bonus on your attacks allowing you to quickly take down even high-level heavy enemies.

Atmos Sphere makes you impervious to almost all enemy attacks. Enemies usually can’t stagger you when this is active, either. Therefore, it makes sense to always use Astra Sphere and Atmos Sphere at the same time. You can then dish out devastating fully charged heavy attacks that will quickly empty enemy health bars, and there’s nothing they can do to stop you. If you’re fighting lots of enemies at once, you can then play it safe and kite around until the Astra and Atmos Spheres are off cooldown, and repeat the process.

This combination allows you to comfortably solo anything in Soulframe, even if you are not very experienced with the game’s combat. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets nerfed or reworked at some point, but for now, it’s a firm contender for the strongest setup in the game.

How to Unlock Ode Tempest in Soulframe

The Ode Tempest can be unlocked by players in the Alca’s Children or Silent Rose factions. You must advance to Rank 5, then attain sufficient Faction Standing to purchase Ode Tempest in the Favours shop.

Once unlocked, you can craft Ode Tempest by visiting Tuvalkane in Nightfold.

See our Faction Progression Guide to learn how to gain Faction Standing as quickly as possible.

Ode Tempest Build Best Virtues

The most important Virtue for the Ode Tempest Pact is Courage, which will boost your HP and the damage of your Courage-attuned weapons.

You should put all of your points into Courage, because this will give you the maximum possible melee damage. There’s little use in investing in either Spirit or Grace for this Ode Tempest build.

Lightning Mage Build Best Equipment

In this section, we will explain the best armour to wear as Ode Tempest and the best weapons to equip.

Lightning Build Best Armour Setup

Currently, the armour system in Soulframe isn’t very complicated. There are three armour stats – Physical, Magic and Stability.

• Physical reduces the damage you take from physical attacks, such as ordinary weapon strikes and arrows.
• Magic reduces the damage you take from all magical attacks, such as lightning and fire spells.
• Stability improves your resistance to stagger effects, making it harder for enemies to stun you or knock you to the ground.

All three of these stats add up to give you a total armour rating, which is visible in the top-right of your character menu.

There are currently no armour pieces or sets that grant special effects, so you should keep crafting better armour until you have the highest possible rating in each armour stat.

Note that it is sometimes better to have a balanced armour distribution that is a little lower on your overall armour stat. For example, having 5 points in each armour stat for a total armour of 15 is better than having 18 points all in physical armour.

Lightning Build Best Weapons

For our Lightning Mage Ode Tempest build, we’re using the Odiac weapon. This is a magick weapon that shoots lightning bolts at foes. The regular attack is a rapid single-target projectile, while the charged attack shoots a larger lightning ball that deals more damage and can hit multiple enemies.

Initially, Odiac is attuned to Spirit, which is no good for us since Ode Tempest is better suited to the Courage virtue. However, you can use the Feybalt: Blessed by Mora joinery when Reforging your Odiac weapon. This will attune the weapon to Courage, as well as boosting your damage on consecutive attacks, increasing your projectile throw range and reducing the Stability cost of parrying.

Lightning Build Best Sidearm

Because this is primarily a ranged build, it’s good to use a Courage-attuned Short Blade as your Sidearm. This gives you a backup melee option, should you need it. In most situations, however, you should be able to kite out of harm’s way to avoid melee engagements entirely.

You should Reforge your Sidearm with either Verite: Blessed by Mora for maximum damage, or Gildaur: Blessed by Mora for slightly less damage but with added Life Steal.

Lightning Mage Best Runes & Totems

For your Odiac weapon, I recommend slotting the following Runes and Totems:

You can learn more about these upgrades in our Runes & Totems Guide.

Combat Arts Upgrade Priority

As you use the weapons mentioned above, you will gain XP towards upgrading the Combat Arts for those weapon types.

In this section, we have some advice for levelling up your Combat Arts for this Ode Tempest Build.

Magick

For the Magick Arts tree (to which Odiac belongs), we recommend upgrading your Combat Arts in this order:

1. Mirrorspell
2. Helm Gong
3. Headlong
4. Unhindered
5. Grounded
6. Scry
7. Coupled Charge
8. Smite
9. Unhindered Rank 2
10. Unhindered Rank 3
11. Smite Rank 2
12. Scry Rank 2
13. Smite Rank 3
14. Scry Rank 3

The first important unlocks are Helm Gong (increases the stagger of your Heavy Attacks, making kiting easier), Headlong (makes your Heavy Attacks charge faster) and Unhindered (allows your Heavy Attacks to travel through enemies).

The next most important unlocks are Grounded (increases your casting speed when you are standing still) and Coupled Charge (increases the damage of your heavy attacks.

Once these essential unlocks are completed, you can spend any remaining points on fully levelling up Unhindered (allows your Heavy Attacks to travel through up to three enemies), Smite (increases your Smite chance) and Scry (increases your lock-on range).

Ode Tempest Upgrade Priority

We recommend upgrading your Ode Tempest Pact Arts in the following order:

1. Lightning Strike
2. Rooted
3. Wingspan
4. Sympathy
5. Gravitate
6. Akin
7. Voided
8. Mora’s Pride
9. Akin Rank 2
10. Sympathy Rank 2
11. Voided Rank 2
12. Mora’s Pride Rank 2
13. Mora’s Pride Rank 3
14. Mora’s Pride Rank 4
15. Iridis’ Favour
16. Everbound
17. Everbound Rank 2
18. Everbound Rank 3

Since the Ode Tempest Pact has no innate healing abilities, it’s logical to go straight for the Sympathy Art, which allows you to absorb HP from enemies when you perform a Smite. Remember to press E when an enemy is glowing, which will trigger the Smite bonus damage and healing.

Putting points into Voided will improve your Smite damage, and Akin will reduce the cooldown of your Arcanic powers.

We then put as many points as possible into Mora’s Pride to maximise Courage (increasing melee damage as much as possible). Once everything important has been unlocked, the remaining points go into Everbound to boost maximum HP.

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