[quote=P0t3mk1n]Greetings, forumites, I’m P0t3mk1n. You might know me as that jerk in the arenas that runs Ego blades that isn’t Veggie or Empyreal10, or as that crazy guy that hosts Costume Contests every once in a while.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately, both from SG members and from strangers seeing me in action, on how to make an effective Ego Blade hero. I’ve decided a comprehensive guide would help steer a lot of new people in the right direction, and cut out a fair bit of confusion regarding how Ego Blades works.
As far as credentials, I’ve run Ego Blades since before the TK pass and for a while before and after Free-to-Play hit. I also run an Ego Blader in the T4 arenas, so I’ve gotten very familiar in how Ego blades play out in a variety of situations.

::Edit:: Special thanks to Empyreal10, as his Dreamstalker build was what got me back into TK blades again.

Before we begin breaking down the powers, I might as well cover some general TK-related mechanics and recommended stats.

Ego Leech

Leech is a personal buff that’s applied as an extra effect by several powers in the Telekinesis set. What it does is basically lower the power cost of your Mentalist powers by a certain amount for each stack you have. This is good, as Ego blades are rather endurance-hungry. Several powers also take advantage of Leech stacks, so this is a buff you want to keep up as long as the fight is going.

Ego Scaling

Ego blades are different from standard melee in that they receive bonus damage from Ego instead of Strength. On Alert recently uncapped the maximum scaling, so you do benefit from stacking more Ego, but you will hit diminishing returns if you take it past, say, 100.

Ego Reverberation

Reverb is the Telekinesis energy unlock, granting you energy based on your Ego and a smidge of your Recovery for every stack of Leech you gain/refresh. As an energy unlock, it’s rather mediocre; even with about 340 Ego, it only grants about 50 energy per stack and has an internal cooldown of 3 seconds. Paired with other ways of gaining energy (Form stacking, for example), it’s actually not bad. I wouldn’t rely on this alone as an energy unlock, though.

Stat Recommendations

Being a melee set, Ego blades has a few stat combos it works well with. It’s not too dissimilar to how Dual Blades works, so a lot of what works with dual blades can work here as well.

Dex/Ego/int: Glass cannon stats, but the damage will be top notch and so will your energy management.

Dex/Int/Con : I recommend this for starting Bladers. You’ll still get lots of crits, and Intelligence will give you fantastic energy efficiency, while the Con will help boost your HP so you're not AS squishy. All you need is a little Ego geared in and you’re golden.

Powers

Here we go, the meat and potatoes. I’ll break down the powers and their relative usefulness, as well as covering a few “utility” powers in the TK framework that can benefit an aspiring Ego Blader.

Attacks

Ego Blade

Your basic melee energy builder, nothing special. I’d probably put a rank into it so it gets the same aura your other melee moves will have, but it’s not necessary; ideally, you’d never use your energy builder at all.
Incisive Wit: This advantage gives you a 15% chance to proc an Id Surge that raises all your damage by 42% at 40. I’d use this advantage in your early levels to help give a bit more offense, then drop it later. Again, if built right, you won’t need an energy builder at all.
Leeching Strikes: This gives your energy builder a chance to proc Leech on every hit instead of only the initial one. There are far better ways of building Leech, so you can safely skip this.

Ego Weaponry

A single-target combination move with a powerful spike at the end of the combo. On Alert's changes made this power a bit better, as there's specs that now boost combo attacks. This can put out respectable and reliable DPS with the right specs for a very low energy cost, even at higher levels, making it handy for the energy-starved early levels. You can drop it once you gain access to better energy management and the T3 single-target moves, but your build won't suffer a lot if you choose to just use this for your single- target needs.
Thought Sever: This advantage actually damages your target’s energy bar and grants bonus damage if the target’s energy is below a certain amount. Unfortunately, this is only useful in PvE situations against your Nemesis, and against good PvP’ers won’t do a whole lot of good. You can skip this.
Siphoning Strikes: Instead of your blade doing more damage when it crits, it instead heals you for however much bonus damage you would have done if you’d crit normally. It’s a useful heal, but there are better healing options that don’t rely on there being an enemy nearby. That said, if your concept says you can’t have any kind of magical or technological healing, this actually isn’t a bad advantage to have; I’ve healed as high as 3k from the end of a combo before.

Ego Blade Frenzy

Your cone-AoE-trash cleaner. It also has a chance to gain Leech stacks, which is always a plus. This power should be in every Ego Blader’s build.
Unnerving Rage: This advantage causes your Frenzy to apply a root for the duration of the attack. With Brawler losing the auto-snare, this is pretty useful to have, as it can be used to keep foes within the radius of your sword(s).

Ego Blade Dash

The TK Lunge. If you’re melee, you should have a lunge of some sort, and this is a good way to incorporate one that stays in-framework.
Head Shot: Applies a Disorient if you lunge more than 20 feet. Disorient is a useful debuff especially in PvP, as it lowers your enemy’s movement speed and attack power temporarily. If your planning on PvE’ing exclusively, though, you can skip this, as the enemies you’d be able to apply this to are too weak to bother with.

Ego Blade Breach

This used to be the bread-and-butter spike attack for Telekinesis before the pass hit. As it stands, it’s still powerful, but its long charge time makes it highly situational in PvP situations and a little clunky in PvE; you’re much better off simply tapping it to maximize your DPS. The power also applies a debuff every time you attack someone with the power, and can stack up to 3 times for a total of 15% more vulnerability to Paranormal attacks. It also applies Leech on full charge.
All that said, Annihilation is still the better choice in many situations, as its charge time is far shorter for much higher damage. If you still wish to debuff your target, there’s better choices, such as Ebon Ruin with the Paranormal Paranoia advantage.
Domineering Will: This power makes you stun a target if it’s blocking while you attack. It can be safely skipped, as the mobs that actually block are usually immune to this, and nobody blocks in PvP.

Ego Blade Annihilation

The new spike move for Telekinesis has received quite a boost from its original role as a finisher. Annihilation can be tapped or charged; if it’s charged, it will consume your Leech stacks for bonus damage and apply a weak Damage over Time effect. Consumed stacks will also be restored to you over time; combined with Ego Reverb, it’s a sort of mini-Rush effect. I highly recommend this power for any Ego Blader.
Mental Acuity: You want this advantage. This will boost the bonus damage from consuming Leech stacks to be as high as the power’s own attack. If the power crits, so will the bonus consume damage. This will let you shave off a lot of a target’s HP in a hurry.

Passives and Toggles

Ego Form

This passive grants a boost to Paranormal attacks and half that to Crushing attacks. It will also give you a cost discount for your Mentalist powers (which scales with your Recovery), helping alleviate energy concerns. This passive is more for hybrids and pure-ranged builds, so you’ll want to skip this in favor of…

Id Mastery

This is the melee-oriented Telekinesis passive. You’ll get the same cost discount as you would from Ego Form, but you’ll get a much higher overall boost to your blade moves. It’ll also grant a small amount of Damage Resistance based on your superstats, which helps you survive in the close-range situations melee’ers often find themselves in. If you wish to go full offense, this is the passive to take.

Id Blades: Both Ego Form and Id Mastery have this advantage. It’s entirely cosmetic: all it does is let you manifest a second Ego blade when you attack. Take it if you like the idea of dual-wielding mind swords.

Mental Discipline

This toggle boosts the damage of your Mentalist attacks by a flat amount in exchange for making your powers slightly more expensive to use. It will also grant additional critical hit chance for every Leech stack you have, up to 10% at rank 3. With specs and the stat changes, this ends up being a good choice for a toggle if you don't want to run a martial arts form or Enrage. The boost ends up being the equivalent of around 7 stacks of Focus, so it's good if you're sick of cutscenes making your stacks fall off or the other forms simply will not fit.
Id Blades: Same as with Ego Form and Id Mastery. This is basically so you have a way to dual-wield Ego blades without using a Mentalist passive.

Clickies and utility moves

Ego Surge

This powerful active offense grants you extra Ego and increased bonus damage to all your attacks (the tooltip says paranormal damage only; it lies). You can get up to 96 extra Ego at rank 3, which is a powerful boost, to say the least. Every build needs an active offense for the damage boost and hold-breaking, and this is certainly a good one to take.
Nimble Mind: This advantage gives you a flat critical chance bonus based on your Constitution. It’s a relic from when the recommended stats were con/ego; as such, it still provides a modest boost even with no Con, so it isn’t a bad advantage to take.

Telekinetic Maelstrom

This applies an area Stun to up to 5 opponents around you and gives you a Leech stack for each opponent hit. The stun is icing on the cake; the cake itself is the Leech stacking. This power makes it ridiculously easy to build up and maintain Leech stacks, making it a good addition to the arsenal of an Ego Blader.
Expansive Intellect: This increases the power’s range from 25 ft. to 35 ft. Take it if you've the points to spare, but be careful, especially in alerts; the extra range can aggro more mobs than you might be able to handle.

Telekinetic Eruption

A point-blank AoE knock that applies Leech for targets hit. Leech application seems random compared to Maelstrom, however, making this slightly less useful. However, if charged over a second, it turns you transparent and grants a damage and resistance bonus to you. It’s useful, but the high power cost makes it rather situational, and the damage buff isn’t that noticeable. Take it if you like the idea of turning see-through or your concept has you turning into pure energy of some sort; otherwise, this can be skipped.
Enhanced Form: Makes the damage buff last longer. If you’re taking this power, you might as well take this advantage, as the buff does last a long time with this active.

Telekinetic Wave

This cone-AoE move grants Leech stacks when it hits targets and knocks them back based on your Ego. It's pretty useful as an in-set control power, especially with holds being gutted with the recent update.
Psychic Tides: This is another PvP-oriented advantage. This reduces your target’s Equilibrium to zero temporarily, causing them to lose energy if they don’t actively work to maintain it. It’s hilarious to use right after your target engages Dark Transfusion, but for the most part it’s of limited utility, as many PvP players have energy efficiency down to a science.

Ego Choke

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” This hold is the quintessential Darth Vader/Sith homage move. Unfortunately, it's been gutted by the current hold mechanics. Skip. :(
Garroting Grip: Reduces the effectiveness of your target’s offensive moves for a short time. I never noticed much of a difference when using this advantage, so you can probably skip this.

Ego Hold

“Help, I’m trapped in a bubble!” This is actually a fairly powerful hold, but the current hold mechanics give it limited utility compared to Ego Choke because this must actually be fully-charged to work.
Mass Effect: Snares enemies around the held target. The enemies you can actually affect with this are too weak to bother holding; as such, this advantage can be skipped.

Telekinetic Shield

Basic block enhancer, nothing special, really. It’s not bad, but there are better options for an aspiring Ego Blader.
Telekinetic Reinforcement: The shield will continue to provide a defensive benefit after blocking. The benefit isn’t that noticeable, however, and relies on being able to actually block to get it up (which you won’t be able to do in PvP). This can be skipped.

Now then, here's a few sample builds:

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Annihilator

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Ego (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Coordinated
Level 9: Shooter
Level 12: Academics
Level 15: Covert Ops Training
Level 18: Martial Training
Level 21: Sniper Training

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade
Level 1: Ego Blade Dash (Crippling Challenge, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 6: Ego Blade Frenzy (Rank 2, Unnerving Rage)
Level 8: Id Mastery (Rank 2, Rank 3, Id Blades)
Level 11: Ego Surge
Level 14: Form of the Tempest (Rank 2)
Level 17: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 20: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 23: Ego Blade Annihilation (Rank 2, Mental Acuity)
Level 26: Telekinetic Maelstrom
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Evasive Maneuvers (Sleight of Mind)
Level 35: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Parry (The Elusive Monk)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2, Rank 3, Versatility)
Level 35: Teleportation (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Power Swell (2/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Protector: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Protector: Unrelenting (2/2)
Protector: Debilitating Challenge (2/2)
Protector: Defensive Expertise (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (2/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (1/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

This is a basic "raw damage" build. If you're not planning on PvP'ing, remove Crippling Challenge and put the points elsewhere. Versus mobs: Run in and Frenzy. Vs. bosses: run in, Maelstrom, Annihilate. Slot some dodge/avoidance gear into your defense slot and pop BCR as needed.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: One with the Shadows

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Intelligence (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Coordinated
Level 12: Healthy Mind
Level 15: Covert Ops Training
Level 18: Survival Training
Level 21: Field Ops Training

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade
Level 1: Ego Blade Frenzy (Rank 2, Unnerving Rage)
Level 6: Ego Weaponry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Shadow Form (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Void Shift (Emerging Nightmares, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 14: Mental Discipline (Rank 2, Rank 3, Id Blades)
Level 17: Ego Surge
Level 20: Ego Blade Breach (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Ebon Ruin (Paranormal Paranoia)
Level 26: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 29: Masterful Dodge
Level 32: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 35: Unbreakable
Level 38: Summon Shadows (Rank 2, Devouring Darkness)

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Displacement Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3, Versatility)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Power Swell (2/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (3/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: Tenacious (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (2/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (1/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)


Part of the reason I love TK blades so much is because so many passives work with it. In this case, Shadowform. Now, you may notice I didn't include Annihilation; this is because this build ignores Leech stacking in favor of building up debuffs to Paranormal damage and then smacking them with Ego Weaponry for the big hit. It's a bit slower than the other build, but it is a fair amount of fun, and other Paranormal damage users won't mind the debuffs you're layering on. As with the previous build, slot in Dodge/Avoidance gear into your defense slot and you'll be fine.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Strength of will

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Dexterity (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Ego (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Shooter
Level 12: Ascetic
Level 15: Martial Training
Level 18: Covert Ops Training
Level 21: Sniper Training

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade (Rank 2)
Level 1: Ego Blade Frenzy (Rank 2, Unnerving Rage, Challenging Strikes)
Level 6: Ego Blade Dash (Crippling Challenge, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Defiance
Level 11: Form of the Tempest (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Ego Reverberation
Level 17: Ego Surge (Nimble Mind)
Level 20: Ego Blade Annihilation (Rank 2, Mental Acuity)
Level 23: Telekinetic Maelstrom (Expansive Intellect)
Level 26: Masterful Dodge
Level 29: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Resurgent Reiki)
Level 32: Evasive Maneuvers (Rank 2)
Level 35: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 38: Unbreakable

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics (Rank 2, Rank 3, Versatility)
Level 35: Teleportation

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (3/3)
Dexterity: Power Swell (2/2)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Deadly Aim (3/3)
Protector: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Protector: Unrelenting (2/2)
Protector: Debilitating Challenge (2/2)
Protector: Defensive Expertise (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (2/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (1/2)
Vindicator: Mass Destruction (2/3)
Mastery: Dexterity Mastery (1/1)

This is a tank build if you like being able to take and deal damage. You'll find this one breezes through most of the normal content, and you'll be fine in team content if you keep your head on straight and not get overconfident. Slot in some Dodge gear and you're golden.

Nice! Adding to Box 'O Guides...

Yay, I'm in the box of guides! I feel special.

As I told Saleen in chat Ego Blades is worse than Kinetic darts if ppl are interested in their advantages since both advantages proc on atk. As such since Ego Blades is melee you will have to constantly be in melee range to atk. This with the 15% chance to proc a Leech makes Ego Blades less desirable. If you don't care about the adv then both are equal and it does not matter what you take.

Good points, but I prefer the melee builder over Darts overall as it allows you to keep Elusive Monk and Laser Knight up more easily if you're using those. Other than that, Darts would be more useful than Ego Blade if you care about the adv./Leech stacks gained from them.

Telekinetic Maelstrom's base range is a 25 foot sphere so with the advantage it would be 35 feet. I always take it just to make it easier to gain ego leech stacks quickly, but if one needs those 2 points elsewhere so be it.