Star-Blade Saint out to an early lead in votes, though I haven't calced argument and omake power in a while... Still, the margins are quite close. Sadly, it looks like this is not Balance's day, despite a clean and efficient build. Is the path of Balance eternally Forsaken, just like our hero's Mask of serenity?
However, now that you guys are finally getting Thousand Cuts, maybe you will have an opportunity to restrain your Arete purchases and slowly build up for Ruling Ring (or Once and Future) in a more sustainable manner! Thousand Cuts works best when you're faster than your opponent (faster windup -> you can perform the Fell-Handed Stroke in a smaller opening, faster attack speed -> more cursed wounds), and all the Thousand Cuts builds get lots of +AGI, so this will be a multiplicative increase to your combat power on top of your potentially already-multiplicative gains.
Looking at the most extreme example, Bloodslayer, which has roughly 243% the effective Strength and 210% the effective Agility and Constitution* of your previous baseline, you would be striking at 17 times your prior power over baseline (at range!) with a Fell-Handed Stroke. With Gisena anticipating many enemy attacks, you could the start the windup to coincide with their appearance, allowing you to get a free alpha strike off!
The point is that you are getting something valuable for all your risk taken, Experience and Arete spent here. A 200% multiplier on physical stats is not just a simple doubling of power. For example, consider two builds with the exact same stats except that one has 200% the Agility of the other. The build with such an Agility lead would probably win at least 3 times to 1 against their otherwise doppelganger. While Strength and Constitution are not as influential, they still play a multiplicative role. So, while you may not be a full 2.4*2.1*2.1 = 10.5 times more powerful, you're probably at least 5-7 times more physically powerful from this single advancement point compared to your previous fleshly form baseline. And that's before accounting for A Thousand Cuts! Stats really are great!
*This is calculated by the actual underlying number, not the +s that you normally see
The other Thousand Cuts builds do not benefit from +Progression and so are not quite as ridiculous, but a similar principle applies. Moral of the story: take Echo of the Forebear.
