Blademaster Ideas

spellkiller/predict, let them miss, critical strike, flee, put it back up, repeat.

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

Actually they can spellkill and critical strike at the same time.

Actually they can spellkill and critical strike at the same time.

This is what I get for not checking myself.

with the toning down of the heart strike blademasters have been made more realistic. If they are striking you then they cannot do certain things, as said if they are trying to lag you via trip, they cannot do certain things. For every action there is a reaction, and thats where I shall leave it.

I've always had spellkill stop if I opened with a critical strike.

If you get a blademaster who wants to jerk you about and keep changing what he's doing drag him about the realms running after you for about 20 ticks and get him to keep changing.

Once he has 0 mana left he can't do anything. Night night chumpy chump.

Deathweaver eats your mana to 'death weave,' what other stances do this? Drain them like this too.

Better still get the jump on them and jump kill them.

L-A

Since paladins are at disavantage againt them why not alow:

Caltraps to not work against those who are ridding and are experts at ride (mounted combat).

Or not works vs flying mounts.

I'm of the opinion caltraps shouldn't affect the flying, period.

Your feet are not touching the ground, so how are caltraps gonna mess with them?

If anything, caltraps thrown at your legs and pierce your skin might prove a little hinderance. Maybe a one hour affect.

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. Blademasters, can trip and charge at their discretion. I know that if they do resort to them they are vulnerable or can't do something else, however I don't see a problem when you'd only lag when you're winning anyway. Not only that, but they have a crit strike that is far better and one that can lag, plus variuos mals they could probably do to stop you from getting away. I've been lagged to death by blm's or unable to get away many a times. I never understood why such a class that obviuosly aren't wimps in melee, has those abilities, why not give them to an ogre warrior or something?

2.Its not hard to flee when you get dispelled, plus the the magic resist races you can choose from, its not very easy to dispel one. Plus I've landed tons of haymakers on blademasters and seen many spells fall or none at all and they are still able to beat the crap out of me in melee in various chars. Every class is will be at a disadvantage when haymakered or dispelled I don't see them at being at more of a disadvantage than other classes, given their lasting crit strikes, ability to heal, melee capabilities, and #of spells not necessarily required to keep up the fight.

3.I doubt good blademasters would wield weaponry that can be disarmed/weaponcleaved against said class, that have those abilities, its not very smart.

In closing my experiences come from warriors, zerks, dk's. Blm's were one of the reasons I deleted Waojin. I just got tired of being so gimped against them. So many times I couldn't collect upon a naked blm due to deathweaver. My lvl ten blades would hardly touch them and when they did, (because most of them were magic resist) they would hit for an injure maybe.) Half of my arsenal of dark magic was useless as I would spend precious rounds using them while getting outmelee'd. It was risky using using charm person, even if I caught them without sanc due to a certain bug maybe? All the skill in the world on my end would backfire upon me or just be negated easily, and we're not talking about the brightest blademasters in the world here. Charm person was useless, malforms was useless, all of my magic was useless. And yes I've tried using the strongest mundane weaponry against them, but they pale in comparison to the power of a malform and I'd hit them even less, it was so not worth it. Ofcourse many will disagree with me, and I expect you to, but these are just my experiences with them. And I got tired of keeping quiet about it, waiting for the day more changes would be made.

I'm in strong favor of the opinion that blademasters are not an overpowered class, just a class that good players can use effectively.

I have played a lot of blademasters. I killed a lot of the big names with a blademaster, including Suunmar, Sirican, the other vampire (name started with U) that was around in Marty's day, Sachi, Inyanus, etc. There have also been some blademasters (IE - Chrinchton, Urdric, etc.) that did very well prior to the tone downs (don't know if they've kept on playing blms since the changes).

However, those are just a couple examples of blademasters in the right hands. I have seen a LOT of people try to play blademasters that just, frankly, did not do very well at all. Yes, these players improved a lot as they learned the class. But they still got their asses handed to them a lot. It is a tough class to play, probably moreso than any class in the game. You have to have an extensive knowledge of equipment to make it work (yes, even for a halfling), and even then, you will STILL get worked over by people a LOT. I have fought Messalantha with two halfling blademasters, both very well equipped and in cabals, and fully prepared to fight a vampire (one even had unique mastery). She kicked my can so hard, it wasn't even funny. Sirican worked me over pretty good once or twice too.

It's a difficult class to play, and once you get the hang of it, it can work wonders.

Here's a question for you. How is a blademaster, who can caltrap and drain you (only if you're of their two expert and own races), different from a shaman who can enfeeble and plague/poison anyone. All a shaman has to do to win a battle is voodoo insomnia, or just land it in battle. They are the perfect communer to kill magic resistant races. Commune enfeeble times five (use detect magic to make sure the actual spell lands), commune curse and deteriorate, and then toss on blind, plague, poison, dysentery. Yes, blademasters have access to some powerful maledictives. But to use those maledictives effectively requires three things: 1) Timing, 2) Preperation, and 3) A dumb opponent.

Ninjas can strangle, poison smoke, and then caltrap. But if an opponent is stupid enough to stay after they get poisoned, then they deserve to get caltrapped. Like the song says: "You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run."

That's the best advice you can EVER be given for PK.

Because of the crazy melee power that a blademaster can dish out, curatives that dont affect caltrap/drain, temple healers that cant cure caltrap/drained, etc. etc. etc.

And shamans can't dish out damage? Plague, poison, mark of visitation, dysentery. I have a log of a recent fight with a shaman, in which I (stupidly) took probably 200 damage to hunger/thirst/plague from dysentery and plague, with a blademaster. Needless to say, I lost that fight. And ninjas?!

Let me introduce you to my friend Rhazhakhar sometime. Mr. Oh-I'm-Going-To-Hit-Mangles-Through-Sanctuary-Without-A-Vuln-Weapon.

It's all about preperation, and tactics.

Edit: And temple healers can't cure dystentery (which pretty much stops regeneration) and enfeeblement, either.

If you try to argue that Shamans put out more or the same amount of damage that Blademasters do, I'm going to delete your life for you.

If you try to argue that Shamans put out more or the same amount of damage that Blademasters do' date=' I'm going to delete your life for you.[/quote']

I will not argue that a shaman can outmelee, or even outdamage a blademaster in a straight up fight.

But if you're a smart shaman, you'll never let the sorry bugger get as far as the room you're in without some heavy maledictions.

I have seen BLM's win fights without critical strike. Never heard of a shaman winning a fight without it's maledictions. They have some overlap, as do necromancers and shamans, or even monks and blm's but they are very different in play style and tactics.

Also, shamans have no way to drain your moves, they can enfeeble, but that only works against a running opponent. A blm can caltrap you, then start to go to work on your moves, all the while beating you up in melee. Shamans have to stay in combat to mal you up, but usually they are the ones taking the beating to do so.

I am inclined to think that it's a matter of who's playing blademasters that makes them seem really powerful. And in the previous statement, blademasters is being filled in for the "flavor of the season" class. A couple of reasons I think this...

A while back, with a certain character, I was getting trounced by a few blademasters. It was frustrating, I was annoyed, and I hated fighting them. After a few months, those characters were gone, and up came another batch of blademasters. I was still playing the same character, and I had a very easy time with these. It got to the point where for a while I considered blademasters easy kills for my character. Several months go by, there is a lot of turnover at 50, and there I was, still with that same character, getting shredded by the two or three recently pinned blademasters.

The other reason I have my doubts about the class being all-powerful is because I've tried them. Now, I'm not great at PK, but I can do fairly well with a few select classes. And I want to love blademasters--they should fit my playing style perfectly, I've always liked melee classes, and they are just downright cool. Yet I manage to be a walking accident when I try to play one, getting killed by every player, mob, and falling-gnome-trap I meet. It's so disheartening.

When I play a character that I feel is overpowered, I don't hesitate to say so. And, while getting run over by other people playing a certain class might be annoying, I need to give it a try to make a fair judgement. And I've tried blademasters; maybe someday the light will go on in my head and I'll get them, but until then I can't jump on the overpowered bandwagon.

You can block shaman spells with saves.

You cannot block critical strikes.

That is the problem.

You cannot block critical strikes.

This statement is wrong.

Well Evangelion, theirs a big difference between shamans and blademasters. Blademasters are a powerful melee class. Also you say their crit strikes require timing, preparation, and a dumb opponent. Well I'm not dumb and sometimes their isn't anything you can do about the timing and preparation part in a battle. Usually my blm opponent's first attack is a crit strike of which is entirely unblockable. Shamans are not in the same class because they can do nothing if you they can't get passed your saves i.e. they don't have unblockable mals.

Also just read two of the above posts, critical strikes have been known to miss, but I think this is based off of dex. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Well, I can think of two that can be blocked by a spell type. And critical strikes can be predicted. Now if you're trying to say that you can "block" critical strikes by getting rid of the blademasters weapons...c'mon...Thats not a serious solution against any worthwhile blademaster.