Does Blade need to be awakened in order to be effective?

Four star.
Does Blade need to be awakened in order to be effective? 18 votes
Yes
27%
5 votes
No
72%
13 votes
0
Comments
Duped- never have to worry about health.
There is no bad version of Blade.
My favorite thing is his parry/bleed.
Boss almost to SP3 and can't get him fire SP2, parry/bleed to victory.