Talk:Soaring Stone/@comment-174.61.159.70-20140316160916

Its also noteworthy that this skill deals a fair chunk of damage all on its own, unlike Leaping Stone which does 0 damage - but will always leave an enemy with at least 1 hp remaining. It also has a completely new animation when it connects, where the character does an uppercut slash with one of their daggers, rather than just leaping upward. And as noted in other comments, it dosn't go as high as Leaping, so this is one of the few upgrades where you may want to occassionally take off the ring and use the older version (though I sometimes want to do so with other moves that have longer durations/recoveries though, like Blitz Strike which can't be used repeatedly as often as Blink Strike can on a single target due to its longer duration).

Actually I'd go so far as to say that this is the only Dark Arisen skill upgrade that significantly changes the MECHANICS of the attack and how it is used in combat, because it is one of the very few that is more than just a numerical stat upgrade.

Most every other skill enhancement is just changes to stats like damage, power, charge time, duration, range, stamina cost, movement speed, number of hits, or animation speed. Stuff the game's designer could probably all change via a spreadsheet. Most don't even have a change in actual animation, but rather just different special effects/sounds applied to make them look more impressive (in addition to the natural visual changes resulting from the stat adjustments like increased speed, duration, or range) if they even look/sound different at all.

The only other move I could think of that actually changes the mechanics of the attack was Hindsight Strike, which adds a unique second swing animation, but that's still a far less significant change than Soaring Stone vs Leaping Stone in how the move is actually used in combat.