Where Winds Meet builds almost everything around Martial Arts weapon paths. Your two equipped weapons define your role, your damage pattern, and even how you approach deflects and executions. A handful of combinations clearly sit ahead of the rest in early PvE, though each path leans into a different style.
Top PvE weapon paths in Where Winds Meet
The current PvE meta is built around two standout paths:
| Tier | Path | Weapons | Core role | Key strengths | Main weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | Bellstrike - Umbra | Strategic Sword + Heavenquaker Spear | Bleed DPS (single-target + AoE) | High damage from bleed stacks, simple rotation, covers mobs and bosses | Needs 5 bleed stacks and Internal Art support to really spike |
| S | Silkbind - Deluge | Soulshade Umbrella + Panacea Fan | Healer/support | Strong self- and party sustain, forgiving for mistakes, excellent in co-op | Lower damage, initial heals are weakened on first-time bosses |
| A | Bellstrike - Splendor | Nameless Sword + Nameless Spear | High-mobility DPS | Explosive burst, melee and ranged options, strong in skilled hands | Higher execution and stamina management demand |
| A | Silkbind - Jade | Vernal Umbrella + Inkwell Fan | Mobile ranged/control | Good against humanoids, can stay at range, decent mobility | Weaker vs non-humanoids, risky float mechanic, steep learning curve |
| B | Stonesplit - Might | Thundercry Blade + Stormbreaker Spear | Tank bruiser | High damage per hit, strong mitigation debuffs on enemies | Very slow, lacks self-sustain while face-tanking in solo play |
| B | Bamboocut - Wind | Infernal Twinblades + Mortal Rope Dart | High-speed assassin (better in PvP) | Very fast, excels at multi-hit combos and PvP pressure | High skill ceiling, fragile, lifesteal buff is hard to capitalize on safely |
All of these paths are viable with enough practice and gear. The big differences come down to how punishing they are when you miss deflects, or mismanage stamina, and whether you mostly play solo or in co-op.
Bellstrike - Umbra: Strategic Sword + Heavenquaker Spear
Bellstrike - Umbra is the go-to choice for raw PvE damage. The pair of Strategic Sword and Heavenquaker Spear revolves around bleed:
- Strategic Sword quickly builds up bleed stacks on targets.
- Heavenquaker Spear amplifies those bleed effects and converts them into big burst damage when triggered.
Once you can consistently maintain five bleed stacks, the build jumps from “solid” to “melts bosses.” Internal Art like Wolfchaser makes hitting that five-stack threshold much more reliable, turning your rotation into a simple loop: stack bleeds, trigger them, reposition, repeat.
In practice, Bellstrike - Umbra is forgiving for PvE because:
- Damage-over-time keeps working even while you dodge or reset your footing.
- The spear’s area of effect swings handle groups, while the sword focuses on single targets.
- Most of the value comes from a few repeated patterns rather than long, rigid combo strings.
If you want a first “meta” build for dungeons and bosses without committing to a support role, this path is the straightforward answer.
Silkbind - Deluge: Soulshade Umbrella + Panacea Fan
Silkbind - Deluge is built around staying alive and keeping everyone else alive. Soulshade Umbrella and Panacea Fan both come from healing-focused Silkbind weapons, and together they function as a full support toolkit rather than a hybrid experiment.
The core gameplay loop is simple:
- Use offensive skills to apply moderate damage while generating healing triggers.
- Time heals to cover big boss swings or party mistakes.
- Lean on the execute mechanic: deflect, then follow through for respectable finishing damage even without stacking high DPS stats.
There are a few important shaping details:
- Healing strength is reduced against bosses the first time you encounter them, so you cannot brute-force your way through learning fights by overhealing.
- The overall DPS ceiling is lower than damage-focused paths, so clears take longer if nobody else in the party is geared for damage.
- Sustain is high enough that solo progression is still very comfortable, especially while you are still mastering deflect timing.
For co-op content, Silkbind - Deluge is arguably the safest choice in the game. It smooths out mistakes across the entire team, which matters more than raw damage once mechanics start to punish small missteps.
Bellstrike - Splendor: Nameless Sword + Nameless Spear
Bellstrike - Splendor sits just below the very top tier, not because the numbers are weak, but because it demands more from the player. Nameless Sword and Nameless Spear give you a toolkit that flows between close-range strikes and ranged wave attacks.
What defines the path:
- Mobility-focused combos: many skills reposition you during the attack, letting you weave in and out of hitboxes rather than blocking everything head-on.
- Ranged pressure: the spear’s wave attacks let you chip down enemies or finish off targets without committing into melee.
- Stamina-sensitive play: the rotation feels best when you plan out dodges and cancels; careless rolling or spammed skills will leave you empty at the worst moments.
For players who enjoy character-action games and are willing to drill combos, Bellstrike - Splendor easily competes with the S-tier paths in PvE. For everyone else, it can feel inconsistent: brilliant when everything connects, punishing when you mismanage your resources.
Silkbind - Jade: Vernal Umbrella + Inkwell Fan
Silkbind - Jade is the more technical cousin of Deluge. Instead of planting yourself next to enemies and healing through hits, you stay light on your feet and lean heavily on ranged tools. Vernal Umbrella and Inkwell Fan shift your focus away from sustained melee trading.
The build stands out for:
- Air control and crowd manipulation: it can launch humanoid enemies into the air and juggle them, dramatically reducing the number of attacks you have to block.
- Ranged-focused pressure: many of your strongest options come from distance, not from point-blank range.
- Special float mechanic: staying afloat to maximize ranged damage is core to the kit, but it also makes you more exposed to projectiles and mispositioning.
The same mechanic that supports its damage output creates its main risk: you are strongest when floating and firing, but that state offers less protection and can be hard to maintain in chaotic fights. Against large or non-humanoid enemies that do not care about being juggled, your control tools also lose some of their edge.
Silkbind - Jade rewards players who have already internalized boss patterns and positioning. It is much less attractive as a first build for learning the game.
Stonesplit - Might: Thundercry Blade + Stormbreaker Spear
Stonesplit - Might takes a very traditional tank-bruiser path: slow, heavy hits, strong mitigation, and debuffs that make enemies easier targets for everyone else. Thundercry Blade and Stormbreaker Spear share that identity.
Key tools and patterns include:
- Damage reduction: the Stormbreaker Spear’s Roar-style ability reduces incoming damage, letting you stay in range longer.
- Offensive debuffing: Thunder Shock-type skills increase the damage the enemy takes, multiplying your team’s output.
- High-impact attacks: individual blows hit hard, especially once you commit resources to the path.
In party content, that combination works well: you soak more hits while making bosses more vulnerable, and your slower pace is less of a problem when others fill the downtime with their own damage. In solo play, it is more awkward:
- Attacks are slow enough that you can feel locked into animations if you mistime them.
- You reduce the damage you take, but you do not have the same self-healing and sustain loop that Silkbind - Deluge provides.
- Clears are noticeably slower when you are not buffing teammates.
Stonesplit - Might makes sense if you prefer a tank-style identity and plan to spend a lot of time in co-op. For fast solo progression, the higher-tier offensive or support paths are more efficient.
Bamboocut - Wind: Infernal Twinblades + Mortal Rope Dart
Bamboocut - Wind is tuned around speed and repeated hits, which makes it a natural fit for PvP. In PvE, it is functional but far more demanding than the bleed or healing paths.
Infernal Twinblades and Mortal Rope Dart combine into:
- Very high attack speed: frequent, rapid strikes that build on-hit effects quickly.
- Multi-hit synergy: passive bonuses increase damage when you hit targets many times in a short window.
- Risky lifesteal buff: a buff grants extra damage and lifesteal, encouraging aggressive play.
The tension is obvious: to benefit from your buffs and lifesteal, you need to stay in the danger zone relentlessly. In PvP, that aggression is a feature; in PvE, it can easily push you into greedy patterns that bosses punish. The lifesteal itself is not strong enough to erase big mistakes, so staying in too long often ends in a one-shot or a failed deflect, not a clutch recovery.
For players who deeply enjoy high-APM assassin styles and already know content well, Bamboocut - Wind can still be fun in PvE. As a general-purpose progression path, it asks more than it gives compared with the safer top-tier options.
Strong individual Martial Arts and how they fit
Some single Martial Arts stand out even outside their default paths and are worth calling out on their own terms:
| Martial Art | Primary identity | Notable traits | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panacea Fan | Support / healer | High healing, team buffs, excellent early-game survivability | Cornerstone of Silkbind - Deluge, strong for any support-focused character |
| Soulshade Umbrella | Hybrid offense + healing | Deals damage while healing user and allies, flexible play between attack and defense | Pairs with Panacea Fan for a full healing kit, still useful solo for sustain |
| Heavenquaker Spear | AoE DPS / bleed enabler | Heavy area hits, crowd control, enhances bleed setups | Core of Bellstrike - Umbra and a strong secondary in any bleed-centric build |
| Strategic Sword | Bleed DPS / mobility | Stacks bleed, offers solid burst and repositioning tools | Pairs with Heavenquaker Spear to form the main bleed path |
| Nameless Sword | Burst DPS | Smooth combo flow with strong burst, works well in both PvE and PvP | Default starting weapon and centerpiece of Bellstrike - Splendor |
Even if you eventually shift to a different path, unlocking and experimenting with these Martial Arts is worthwhile. They are strong enough to carry multiple weapon configurations and give you a better feel for how bleed, sustain, and burst damage behave in real fights.
Choosing a path for your first character
Weapon paths in Where Winds Meet are flexible enough that you can clear PvE content with virtually anything. The main choice is not “what is mathematically best” but “how much friction are you willing to tolerate while learning.”
| Player priority | Recommended path | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Fast, low-friction PvE clears | Bellstrike - Umbra | High damage with simple bleed loops, works on mobs and bosses |
| Co-op and support focus | Silkbind - Deluge | Reliable healing and sustain, keeps the entire group alive |
| Mechanical challenge and flashier combos | Bellstrike - Splendor or Silkbind - Jade | Reward precise rotations and movement, but punish mistakes more |
| Party tanking identity | Stonesplit - Might | Reduces damage taken and boosts team damage, excels in group content |
| PvP-first, assassin feel | Bamboocut - Wind | Designed around rapid multi-hits and aggression, with more risk in PvE |
The weapon you enjoy almost always beats the weapon with a slightly better placement on any tier list. Martial Arts can be upgraded, respecced, and paired in different ways over time, so there is little long-term penalty for starting on a path that feels fun and intuitive, then drifting toward a more “meta” option once you have a better handle on the combat system.
Pick a path that matches your preferred role, invest in its core Martial Arts, and then layer in Internal Arts and Mystic Skills that amplify those strengths. The best builds are the ones you can pilot confidently under pressure, not just the ones with the best labels on a chart.
