Blademaster Ideas

Just thought I'd start this thread to see what everyone thinks about this:

Currently, blademaster can caltrap once and get you for seven hours. (caltrap 6 hours)

And drain you for five hours.

This is a nasty, nasty combo, allowing them to either run you out of moves if you aren't just completely overpowering them hardcore. Or, if you are, it allows them to get away with you in no shape to chase them.

My idea is to let them keep the nastiness, but not make it so gosh darn easy to get.

Basically, the initial hit would put an affect of:

Caltrap/drain 1 hours

The blademaster would then have to continue to hit the critical strike, in order to stack on more hours, with a cap of 3 or 4 hours max.

This lets them keep the nastiness they are supposed to have, but not make it just completely easy to get.

I think thats a great idea. That way the desired affects can still be achieved but at least it gives the opponent more time to see it coming. Since critical strike has a two round lag you could have your opponent both caltrapped and drained in 2 rounds (if you open with one).

Sounds good to me, although I'm only seeing this from the receiving end, so its hard to say just how balanced it is.

I would think you'd have to lower it down into the margin where you can hit anyone for this one.

I thought blademasters didn't need expert or mastery in a race to give the caltrap effect. Drained on the other hand they would. Been a couple years since I played one last, so I'm not super informed on how they've changed and a little fuzzy on how they've always been.

Caltrap anyone, drained as long as they have have picked your race as a selectable, or you are their race.

What % anat is required to do this critical strike? I could talk about the heart strike (though I believe it has been toned) and say its WAY too strong for what it does - of course, the balancing factor is that you could do it to just 1 (??) race.

Perhaps its one of those things that is powerful in certain situations but not in others.

L-A

101 for stomach I think. And the heart was toned. Blademasters are still a relatively new class and I believe are still being looked at for possible tweaks.

1 race isnt exactly true, more of a grouping of races, depending

They can have up to....six or seven I guess

Drow blademaster can harm drow/elf

picks unique opens up a couple

picks demi-human opens up a couple

picks flying opens up a couple

Giant covers quite a few also.

Yea no doubt. Almost dozen is obtainable then.

I was going to start my own idea thread but its similar to what Zrothum already stated. I agree that stomach strike (which only requires 20% anatomy knowledge to land) needs to be tweaked. Shaman enfeeblement no longer drains movement when cast upon an opponent, why should blademasters-a melee class no less-have it so easy? The stomach strike drains 70 moves a pop, and can be used against ANY race.

Yea I forgot. Spleen does drained, not stomach. Spleen 101

The question that I am looking at (and will look at going forward as well) is if we've got a case of powerful players using a class well, or if we've got a case of an overpowered class.

If it is an overpowered class, I will be toning it down, trust me. I don't like an unbalanced game either.

However, some weaknesses of blademasters to look into for yourselves:

1. Lag: Like all melee, blademasters are vulnerable to being lagged badly if they're not in deathweaver. If they are in deathweaver, they have no ability TO lag.

2. Dispel: Blademasters are reliant on their stances and spells. Take those down and you've got a huge advantage. They can be both dispelled and haymakered.

3. Weapons: Blademasters are massively dependant on their weapons, the most of any melee class. A disarm or weaponcleave is sure to make the blademaster have a really bad day.

1. Aside from a few classes, lagging a person is not possible.

2. Same with #1

3. Almost like #1 and #2 and @ 50, a nodisarm weapon is most likely equipped.

I am not quite sure I would consider these to be weaknesses.

How many classes are there than can neither lag nor dispel?

• Paladin

• Bard

• Let me know when you find a third.

I always thought charge, or at least mounted charge sorta lags?

Sorry, was a very vague post I made. I meant not many classes have a reliable lag skill. And not many classes have dispel. I wasn't meaning that across the board, one of the two isn't there.

Bash, trip, bodyslam is what I consider reliable lag. Grapple never really fancied me much and a ninja is most likely getting walked over by a blademaster in melee anyway. We aren't talking about vamps, crusaders, etc.

By the time dispel lands on a blademaster at 50 who is not naked and dressed decently (especially duerger/halfling/dwarf), chances are he's already got you caltraped and drained and pretty hurt, so off he runs to put everything back up.

And let's not forget, blademasters can just predict your lag skill, or spellkill your dispel spell.

And let's not forget' date=' blademasters can just predict your lag skill, or spellkill your dispel spell.[/quote']

Not and put caltraps up. Remember the weaknesses of the class you're talking about.