It is? I'm pretty sure it was 8 for warrior and 6 for ranger.
n00b! 
Locked Blademaster Suggestions
Meh, I swore to myself about not posting to this, but I spose I am now. (Yes, intoxication makes words come forth)
Blademasters are EXTREMELY powerful
Feel free (everyone) to tell me where I lie wrong, cuz I'm sure I might be (I'm exhausted and thinking in that same manner)
Blademasters cannot be initiated against
-counter / serpent strike
- theres ways, but I don't wanna mention and they don't work well
Blademasters can place absurd crit strikes against you
- (This is about the low anat for high pay off abilities...)
Blademasters, if only fighting one opponent (See normal FL stature) can predict and kill nearly any of their opponents. Yes, I concur that many people COULD attack a blm while attacking someone else, but it's too pathetic and will likely draw IMM attention to do so.
Overall, I think blademasters ability to weaken classes without strong anatomies (which Rinthilaz has so eloquently shown) should be removed considering the dmg + the move weakness. (And yes, I am mentioning one/two crit strike, considering it requires 20 anat)
Considering the fact that we consider a blm's dispelling as weakness, why is it that this is their only wekaness?? Think about this and you'll understand what I mean about the blm's weakness being a couple while everyone else having a multitude.
AKA
fight blademaster, fight fight
huge giant dispels all my stuff, flee, flee....1 tick to reapply, engage again. Let the giant keep trying dispels while I stuff his mouth with my polearm
(Yes, I realize the man regeneration is suck, but if you can work well enough in that amount of time against them, it doesn't matter....and if you wonder what I mean, you haven' t fought a good blm)
Lastly: If you ARE to reply to this, tell me WHICH class is INHERENTLY the bane of BLM considering every class has a bane
Edit Tua: Lets finally edit this post by saying this is WITHOUT cabal powers...imagine the player of Behrens, Malch ,or Chayesh playing a BLM in a cabal....not cool cuz they will reap the rewards easily if they know what they gotta/can do
I heard Chayesh is worse at pk than Deykari. But it could just be a rumor.
I have to agree with JB on this one. I think they have something for every class. And the critical strikes are just retarded at how powerful they are. Such as being able to poison and plague as if it were casted by a shaman. They remind me of shaman warriors with all the mals they bust out, while hitting 2-5 times a round plus the crazy progs that they have going off.
I think the class is great but I've seen even people with small knowledge compared to others in this game wreck people. I just think it needs a tone down and it isn't just because there are a few good players right now playing them.
I don't think blademasters are massively overpowered, perhaps maybe some things should be tweaked, but I think a lot of what you all have pointed out stems from their ability to fight very well without superb equipment. I have a blademaster that I just played on the side before, and between blood vow, battlesphere, and basic non-rare equipment, I could get my hit/dam rolls about 45/20.
Now, I'm not saying they can take down -any- class like this, but against a lot of classes I didn't even need any type of good equipment. I think the hardest fights for me were communers, especially when they didn't have an accessible vuln (I played a dwarf, not the classic high dex blm).
Basically, I think that in the right hands a blademaster reaches much closer to their power peak faster than a lot of other classes. An advantage that I think diminishes when their opponent has reached his own power peak (ie, has good equipment). When I played Kronit, I fought I think three of Evangelion's halfer blademasters (Tomas, Taeim, Lerris (?)), two of them with giant expertise/mastery, and I never had any problem aside from one fight where I was too lazy to switch from using a magic staff. You also can't blame it on cabal powers, because Taeim and Lerris had E/T warmaster powers, and watcher powers weren't even useful against them.
The point being, I don't think blademasters are a completely dominating class like many people seem to think, although I do think there are some aspects that could be looked into. I'll try to post again later with some specifics, although I think there is relevance in several of Evangelion's suggestions.
I think there should be some tweaks, but no real tonedowns. Right now, just as with many classes. A lot of elite players are playing blms, so overpowered is being shouted. I bet the behrens playing one or two as well to see what needs tweaking.
And Kronit sent Marty running as an I, so I don't think his opinion should count.
That'd be like behrens saying I just owned you with my human (insert class) so I'm going to tone it down.
RE: JB, If you ARE to reply to this, tell me WHICH class is INHERENTLY the bane of BLM considering every class has a bane.
I can think of one and maybe two more.
Evil Cleric - the famous always landing minister and with the possiblity of causing blind, poison, and plague.
Necro - try and put them to sleep, oh he has snakespeed it wont work (look what he is wielding first). If he is weilding two weapon dispel first if you wish. Oh he has Deathweaver then dont assist you wont attack so you wont get attacked. Let your zombies drain his mana and drain energy too.
Monk - No weapons mean you do not have to worry about getting disarmed, chance to put him to sleep great fighter doesnt need that much eq to fight well. Can bring the bladmaster down if flying and lag him. I can keep going.
PS feel free to disagree
I would say that rangers are the big blm bane, with necros coming in a maybe? 2nd. Pure theory wise, dks should do well also.
I would say that rangers are the big blm bane' date=' with necros coming in a maybe? 2nd. Pure theory wise, dks should do well also.[/quote']
Understanding Deathweaver will shed light on why Necromancers are not a bane to the class. In fact, they are one of the easiest to beat with them. I have been able to beat a necromancer with full zombies and cabal powers while having nothing on but a light source and a sharp glaive...and it wasn't that stressful or hard.
A necro can't sleep a blademaster due to snakespeed. He can't dispel him due to spellkiller. He can't lag them due to deathweaver. Further, his pets can't hit him because the zombie attacks are redirected, and in the times that they stay on him, they often are deflected by the added defense. Add up the damage from strikes, blademaster melee, supreme procs on weapons, as well as the necro's zombies working against him and you find yourself breezing through.
A blademaster would have to make some very poor choices to struggle against a necromancer.
In terms of a bane class, the only ones that come to mind involve combos that require cabal powers. Beyond that, a Warrior can perform well.
An evil cleric is no problem. I've fought evil clerics, like Comaton, with no more than 70ish anatomy in them, and had no trouble at all. Honestly, I think a blademaster can do extremely well using only sub 100 anatomy strikes. Further honesty, I think a blademaster could do well without any strikes at all.
Add in the plethora of mals they can put on your instantly, plus any cabal abilities, and you may find too much power.
I like the suggestions of lowering the durations and making a blademaster manually upkeep the strikes. In terms of the stomach strikes along with caltraps, I feel they should potentially just be removed from the class entirely. and replaced with something more reasonable.
Caltraps is a grandly powerful ability. It is greatly offensive and defensive at the same time. If you are winning, then it acts to keep your opponent locked in place and easy to run down. If you are losing, it assures that you can outrun their movement with ease. Add in any ability to telelock (especially the longer duration versions), as well as the ability to drain 70 movement a round, and you have a situation where you (as a victim) either make them run (because killing them would mean you didn't have to chase at all), or die.
A class that can lock you down that viciously with no chance to resist, restricting movement down to nothing if you try any tactical moving while they roam freely, is too much. This is a very common shaman tactic, one which requires the landing of many spells, and takes time. A blademaster can do it in a matter of rounds and you cannot defend against it.
I understand the appeal of a shaman-warrior-monk, but at some point you have to think about the real balance, and not just what makes the class neat to play. A blademaster has essentially the best defensive capabilities of any melee in the game. They have mal strength equal or greater than that of a shaman due to it being irresistible. They have offensive power that rivals all melee classes, and if done with a little bit of though, exceeds them all.
Its time to pick what a blademaster's specialty is, instead of giving them everything.
Zerks, zerks can royally screw a blm.
Zerks' date=' zerks can royally screw a blm.[/quote']
I'm still a n00b by my own admission, and I owned every zerk I fought except for Thorghull. And the first time he had a charmie granted by a weapon. The second time he was Nexus, and he was better equipped both times. But every other one fell in a matter of rounds, I usually only had to use one critical strike and it was over.
Interesting - during my time as Gylrad (stone zerk) I managed to beat most blademasters who didn't trip lock me. This is not to say its was 'easy' - usually I had to haymaker;slam and hold a lock using no sanc on blm and slam to kill them. They defended WAY to well IMHO vs a raged zerk with dual flails at 103% vs a polearm. Even unstanced. Also, they got many, many more attacks then me as I had to use 2h or shield for enough defense. Does seem right they had that much punch with a polearm (staff isn't a real offensive weapon, polearm is better) and still all the defense.
L-A
Well I forgot to add that after that one critical strike I would triplock.
I've taken down a few blademaster's as an evil cleric, with relative ease, unless the player behind the blademaster happens to be much more skilled then myself in terms of chasing/running, they're fairly easy to attrition. Just my two cents.
Keep in mind that if you can manage to bring a blademaster down to 0 mana he's more gimped than an outcasted healer. Every useful skill he has costs mana, his stances and spheres cost mana to upkeep.
they should do away with blademasters entirely or keep it unchanged and make it a qclass.
edit: just consider this, psi's were taken offline and made a qclass before they were able to do any real balance damage for really no reason. blademasters are still allowed to walk around and mess people up at will. plus they've already annihilated the reason for a warrior or berserker. plus they dont even establish any pre-conceived notion of RP as a class unto itself, or inspire any. it's really an all-around cruddy deal, although i thought the players that conceived the blademaster class meant well. it doesn't matter. i mean everyone be serious for a minute.
I like blademasters, but they do have quite a few tools in their belt. They are like an awesome jack-of-all trades, like a bard, but can fight.... very good.
I have no idea why everyone is so freaked out over BLM's crit strikes. If you want to start talking about overall balance, crit strikes are crap compared to shaman's mals. Blindness, poison, plague, dysentry, mass hysteria, INSOMNIA. All pretty much a serious pain in the . Don't even get me started on that god* voodoo skill. Yeah they are a limited item, but dropping insomnia from Miruvhor on me in Val is just sick. You don't even have to attack me, insomnia is so damn annoying I will probably log off so I stop having to hide waiting to pass out and wake back up. BLMs obviously own Shamans in straight melee, but they have a fricking polearm. What do you actually expect? Granted a shadowdancing halfer is just completely disgusting and generally makes me want to cry, but at least I can just show that fool my heels and peace out until he finds something better to do.
BLMs not invoking a sense of RP? I had a BLM who started off loving the flow of muscle and steel (seems pretty RP invoking to me), transferred that fixation to a lady-elf crusader of the time, watched her get axed by a cabalmate, decided she was more vital than some stupid sword and fought (unsuccessfully) to protect her, even after getting all my stuff sacced by the cabalmate. Probably some of the most interesting RP I have had, granted my RP can be weak sometimes.
insom takes 12 hours to induce a sleep, and not only can you go to a place that's inaccessible, but you can do things in the mean time to take care of hourly mana drain. 
and not only is your mana back to where it started at the end of your sleep, but you can go straight to the shaman if you know where he is and keep quaffing mana elixirs sold in the hive as long as you quaff in a forest, which are everywhere. you already have scrolls as a BLM so you can also recite energy scrolls. it's nothing. if you cant find him, log off. i dont feel sorry for a BLM for -one- -millisecond-
yeah...but the entire point is you are going to sleep at some point, and for a good little bit too. If the person is willing is make a voodoo doll of you, chances are they are decently familar with you or pretty much out to get you. If I voodoo insomnia on you enough, I'll find you eventually and I don't know 1/100th of the game. If they are familar with you, then they know where you frequent, which premium items you tend to hold the most, your clan or cabal hall, your hometown, or if your closer allies are around. If I see like 4 50s that I know tend to roll around together, I'm gonna insomnia the one I don't like then check Winter, Gear, Deso...so on and so forth. Basically BLMs are melees with mals, they don't use shields making them very vulnerable to a whole series of things (whoever said zerks can't handle BLMs might need to rethink tactics). That is what I would like to call a sacrifice to get something else. Warrior - shield + some mals. I would almost like to say that the shield is a worse downside than getting some mals against a select few races. I personally hate getting knocked out of my stance and sanc, especially if the fight is getting drawn out. Mana right down the tubes. Shamans are BLMs - sharp weapons + RANGED MALS. I can't even call it ranged mals, because that would imply they are effective at the same range as fired weapons. For lack of a creative term, I'll go with global mals. Anyone else feel like reaching out and touching someone from across the world? Oh sorry little halfer BLM, that sword just isn't long enough. Sissy shaman, I think that doll might just do it for. BLMs as a qclass? Umm...I just don't feel like they have enough pop. Having to meditate isn't that bad, until you need 5 more mana and homeboy is right on your tail. Now if we had a Samurai qclass that could wear heavier armors (not any armor, maybe +5 in each encumberance slot)... I'm pretty convinced that a drawout counter kind of thing would be pretty nasty. Make it only work if you have a sheathed weapon, maybe even make it be a twohander. Give samurais only swords...I'll stop now, because the ideas are just piling up now and I need to start drinking.