But some exotics are bladed??????????????????
Then they should be reclassified as bladed if they're deemed not an overly powerful weapon. These are probably tweaks and changes that were overlooked when the class was designed. I'm just trying to raise the awareness level.
What's the problem about blademasters being able to critical strike with exotics, specifically? Is that really the unbalanced part about blademasters? A polearm is superior to exotics in every way, it isn't learned by all classes and it is possible to charge with. What's to say the current crop of blademasters just wouldn't switch to a different weapon type, and all you did was preventing them from using exotics effectively.
You haven't really pointed at the problems with blademasters, except that they are obviously overpowered, so I don't see how your suggestion would solve anything, except a general tone down of the class. This is one of those suggestions I believe will affect mostly less skilled players, as the more skilled ones have it much easier to adapt.
I tend to agree that blademasters power peak too strong. Its been my feeling for a while, but whenever people bring it up they are dismissed in short time, so there wasn't really any point saying anything.
I've had plenty of experiences with many blademasters on melees where I have something around 60/50 hit/dam and I'm lucky if I get in more than a hit or two per round when the blademaster has his weapon in offensive. When the blademaster lowers the weapon, getting more than a hit or two in per round is very seldom. Almost all of my wins against well played blademasters come from carefully waiting for certain spells to fall, or else waiting for the blademaster to screw up and taking advantage.
There's three potential things I see as corrections; not neccesarily saying to use all of them, just giving options.
I'd like to see blademasters be more committed to their stance/weapon position, etc. I definitely think blademasters have way too much defensive even when they are putting out almost as much damage as even warriors sometimes.
A chance to save against some of the critical strikes. Especially things like poison/blind, etc. Just because you land the strike, which is already very damaging, shouldn't automatically mean an unblockable mal effect that is as strong and long-lasting as some of the strikes produce. Now some will argue that most of those mals are expertise or specialties which are the signature of the class, which brings me to my next point.
This applies to any blademaster, but if we use Janjara's expertise/mastery selection (as the most current blademaster), that covers four anatomy categories. Her own race, plus three others. If I'm not mistaken, which I could be, she has beast (inherent), elf, giant, and unique. That covers Fire Giant, Storm Giant, Stone Giant, Ogre, Elf, Drow, Feral, Werebeast, Slith, Minotaur, Illithid, Undead, and Demon. That includes 13 out of 21 races (including qraces), over 50%, and almost all of the most commonly played races that a blademaster can use 'advanced' strikes on. Usually with a melee, poison and caltraps merits a retreat unless you are seriously outdamaging, which is unlikely (especially if a 1-2 hr blind is thrown in). Even against a blademaster that is barely equipped they can just throw these strikes and you will need to retreat.
Just some things to consider.
Maybe this person did it because it is strategically and purposefully done? Jesus, its just a well played character, quit complaining.
yup i agree with calron, after playing my first blademaster to some success I can hold my own against decked caballed communers with just a regular set of oak and mithril that I can rarely do with any other melee class.
Obviously that is why the person did it, I wasn't thinking he/she flipped coins. 
That wasn't the point. Despiser's ninjas were well-played as well.
Their power peak is high, I agree with that, but for a melee only class with a 350 experience penalty and over 50+ skills, most of which you need to spend hours and hours of training to master, I think you should get a high power peak. There is not more blademasters than rangers, warriors, clerics or casters at 50, and not many of the blademasters are succesfull, and from what I've seen they have all died in the past week or weeks, meaning they aren't impossible to beat.
In regard to equipment, much like monks due to encumberance, the blademaster class has a high inherited hitroll, blood vow, battlesphere and stance choice quickly adds up, and this might be worth looking into. However, they do not gain much from their haste stance, and dual wielding is as effective as using a two-handed weapon in regard to the number of attacks.
And stance choice and weapon position really is important, get bashed by a giant in the wrong one and your hit points will drop quickly. Avians and gnome casters as well as human communers are also quite good against blademasters, I would assume, in regard to the anatomy argument. Perhaps this is something to consider when creating a character, 'Is it likely that I will fight many blademasters, and is it likely they will have high anatomy in my race? Will I be able to deal with it using class abilities and/or consumables'? The way I see it, blademasters helps diversity because many of them have an edge over the cookie cutter races and tend to do much worse against the less common combinations.
From what I've seen and heard, blademaster is the one class that has a different approach to combat entirely based on which race you play. Most dwarves I see dual wield, most halflings, drows and ferals is in shadowdancer and the sliths can be in any one stance.
I get the impression this thread is one of those 'class x or race y is overpowered', and there have been those about ninjas, vampires, rangers, ogres, weaponlock warriors and so on and so forth. Which is a good thing, because it allows the administration to tune and balance the game and make it even better. I'm just not convinced something as drastic as removing exotic weapons, or the ability to strike critical strikes with exotic weapons, is what the class needs.
I wasn't suggesting to remove exotics or change anything about that. That argument stemmed from having a problem with one weapon which I do not believe is a reason for a change.
I do agree with the 'need more emphasise on the stance' idea. I thought blm were going to be like monks in the sense that they need to be well prepared and thought out to be sucessful. Although that is true, a monk is a lot more vulnerable unprepared then a blm is.
I do agree with the 'need more emphasise on the stance' idea. I thought blm were going to be like monks in the sense that they need to be well prepared and thought out to be sucessful. Although that is true' date=' a monk is a lot more vulnerable unprepared then a blm is.[/quote']
Force them to empower to use skills. Not offensive or defensive, just a general empowerment. That way they have to keep track of one more thing. And it keeps them from going from completely unprepared to rolling tank in a round.
But to be honest, if you catch a blm offguard they are very weak, and easy to kill. It's just when they are prepared for you and hunting you specifically that they will likely win.
I don't find blademasters to be nearly as handicapped as they probably should be without a stance. Considering the fact that they can simply cast their stance at any time without any empowerment at all, the penalty for being caught without one should be significant.
With regard to exotics: Most of the more 'powerful' oprogs exist on extoic weapons. Its no surprise that he playerbase is starting to use them more and more - offensive, defensive or not, the oprogs that you can get on some of them are just insane. There is one in particular (which I think has started this thread) that I've known for a long time will give any melee (and probably most caster) characters a large advantage.
My personal feeling is that oprogs are cool and should do small thing but not the large things some of them do. However, the game has never been this way...
Blademasters already have access to a lot of mals to put on you - and they can't be saved against to my knowledge. Its not like spells or lag skills where you coudl conceivablely use eq to help you. I also agree that for the mals you should be allowed a save roll.
L-A
But the blademasters have a drain on their stance, I think it's a few points of mana per round. Considering they must meditate to regain mana, they'll fall out of the stance in long, drawn-out battles, while monks do not have this problem. This is especially tedious for the blademaster since most abilities (counter, balance, onslaught, battlesphere, etc) requires mana. I like how monks and blademasters are different yet alike, and am somewhat reluctant to see empowerment added for blademasters. I would much rather just see the current skillset tweaked until it is balanced, if it isn't already.
Most of the mals you must land (blind, poison, weaken, plague, paralyze), and with the chance of missing your attack, adding a spell save check will nearly make the entire anatomy/critical strike skillset useless against decked people, which by the way is the characters you already have the most troubles with. The blind, for example, lasts a single tick or sometimes two, like a dirt kick except you can't use it on nearly all characters. A spell save check would make it nearly impossible to reliably blind the characters you actually know the anatomy of.
The fact that they aren't generally able to use it against people is because it isn't considered a necessary skill for a blademaster to have to be balanced/win fights, as opposed to dirt kick for a warrior.
However, they can in fact use it against a lot of people, more than half of the races and certainly a lot greater percentage of the races normally played, with the some selections. You said before this might encourage people to choose a less common race; however, it isn't really viable to choose a race generally less effective against almost all others just to avoid some crits from a blademaster. The marginal cost of this action would far outweigh the marginal benefits.
Regarding critical strike, and without saying too much, is there a way for melee's to avoid that laglock? You don't have to tell me what, just is there a way? Because if not thats very powerful (not talking about tripping)
I don't find blademasters to be nearly as handicapped as they probably should be without a stance. Considering the fact that they can simply cast their stance at any time without any empowerment at all' date=' the penalty for being caught without one should be significant.[/quote']
Agreed.
The blademasters strength lies in their ability to handle any race/class with the right stance and weapon selection. They also have some really really great skills/spells to buff them up. It is also very difficult to engage a blademaster without taking damage on your opening attack. The only way to really beat down a BLM is to survive long enough to drain their mana/hp which is a lot easier said than done. I'd perhaps consider changing or removing their healing skill entirely. A monks healing is in a way better than acupuncture as it heals on a sliding scale based on your hp% (not 100% sure about this but it seemed that way on my monks) and it can also remove many harmful mals more effectively than acupuncture. But the difference between one healing every 24 hours and an acupuncture every 7 or so hours can be enough that a BLM really only has to meditate to keep their mana up and use acupuncture/consumables/cool items to keep their hp up. If they did not have acupuncture it would give their enemies a chance to actually beat them with attrition IMO.
Regarding critical strike' date=' and without saying too much, is there a way for melee's to avoid that laglock? You don't have to tell me what, just is there a way? Because if not thats very powerful (not talking about tripping)[/quote']
No, critical to diaphragm has a random range of lag, and solar plexus has the same, only its range is higher. Solar plexus is the basically the most potent lag skill in the game. Either one of them can result in a lock, and theres no real way to avoid them.
Acupuncture can have some very nasty side effects though, so it can be a gamble.
No' date=' critical to diaphragm has a random range of lag, and solar plexus has the same, only its range is higher. Solar plexus is the basically the most potent lag skill in the game. Either one of them can result in a lock, and theres no real way to avoid them.[/quote']
That's not entirely correct. However, even blademasters have their secrets, and I'm not about to go revealing them, especially when I'm not playing one right now.
