Blademasters

If a zerk's slamming into you, is it really going to be that much help to go defensive WITHOUT gaining balance?

If you can get away, it gives you the chance to get balance up that much quicker. Rather than having to hope that you've passed the 6-8 hour mark and then empower defensive. It isn't a catch-all fix that I had in mind. But it might give you a fighting chance.

Fair enough.

It's a weakening towards one class (two' date=' if you count clerics) compensated for by a boost against every class without axe (healers/shamans, mages, rogues)... it even really counters the weakening towards clerics and monks, as while the blademasters lose some skill defending against hand to hand, they can still cause the clerics and monks the same loss because they don't have axe either. Overall, I'd call this a boost, not a fair trade-off.[/quote']

Depends on the output of damage really. In all fairness, a Monk is hitting for the random chakeras as well as the huge amount of damage which can make up for it. Clerics get holy hands, which can totally stop a Blademaster depending on religion and could have some nasty side affects that would cause the Blademaster more harm than good. So while the Monk is lagging you to death with chakera strikes and possibly trip and air thrash, you've only got your axe doing offensive power, which might not even get the job done. Clerics have the chance of dispelling sanc and just path spamming, I wouldn't find that very fun and if the persons anatomy isn't up to par with the race of the cleric, well that's all the better for the Cleric. I'd have to see a demonstration with an actual Blademaster that has the axe ability fighting a Monk/Cleric to see it really go off, and no, kairishi doesn't count. Monk might have the upper hand for once in any stance he goes, so we can't just speculate because they don't have it doesn't mean they wont win anyways, besides, what if they catch said Blademaster without the axe? I doubt the Blademaster will run around with an axe 99% of the time, most likely a polearm that seems to be their trademark.

Polearms are the blademaster trademark because polearms are such a beautiful mix of offensive and defensive power. Axes would be useful because they sacrifice defensive power (not too much... it's not like parry's all they have) for greater offensive power. It's not a tradeoff that I'd love blademasters to have... they're offensive enough as it is.

I haven't fought blademasters much or played one, but I have to say that I haven't seen one roll the p-base, or even an aggressive PKer play one really. I also haven't seen anything posted in this thread that seems to make them overpowered. What I have seen is many people trying to figure out how to change them so they can beat them, rather than trying to figure out how to beat them as they are. It sounds like if a blademaster is fully prepared, fully trained, and specializes in your race, and you try to fight them toe-to-toe, you are at a disadvantage. What that tells me is don't fight them toe-to-toe when they're fully prepared.

I don't know much about this whole Blademaster deal other than I've refused to play one, but I've heard that slith can be one of the weaker ones, but better for dealing with warriors.

My feral warrior went up against a slith blademaster who wasn't wielding a vuln weapon against me (just some polearm) and I was wielding a two-handed nodisarm flail (my weapon mastery weapon choice) and I still got beat down fairly hard.

I'm not sure if this even makes a point. Blademasters confuse me.

HUGS ALL AROUND!

Alright, I know that one stance cannot be talked about.

but READ THE HELP FILE ON KAIRISHI! It does not matter if a blm loses hand to hand. Kairishi can be ANY weapon. I swear lol, Kairishi has to be the least used form of any out there, and it rocks hard.

Kairishi is amazing, when I played my two blms I prolly used that stance more than any other. The problem with actually giving a blm axe is that they can wield lets say a spear, then dual an axe. Now they parry like a champ with their spear and use footwork to mess you up with the axe alone. At least the balance with kairishi is that even though you can mimic other weapons you wont be able to predict, making it a questionable choice against melees and hybrids.

I can't say this for sure because I've never thoroughly tested it, but I seem to recall training dual parry on one of my blademasters using a whip in my main hand and dual wielding a dagger, and parrying for **** (due to whip). When I switched with footwork though, I started taking a lot less damage - this could have been a fluke, or the result of somewhat increased dual parry skill, but there's a chance that footwork uses the weapon you're attacking with to determine your defense.

Anyway, you people have my opinion on blademasters. They're fine, and don't need anything toned or changed - people just need to really examine their logs from fighting them, and try different tactics.