Shadowdancer

Basically, my idea is this: Make DEATHWEAVER a two-weapon form only.

Being the most defensive stance, this will sacrifice a bit of the perks of using those two-handed weapons, and their related skills (snakespeed and spellkill anyone?). The form should rely on speed and agility, which goes with the general idea of the two weapons.

I think this will fix blademasters in that they cannot be lagged AND can counter anything. So, if you go unlaggable, you lose that damage counter perk, and if you want to use the damage counter perk, you risk being bashlocked.

Just some thoughts. What do you think?

EDIT: DEATHWEAVER! HAH!

I think you misspoke which stance you were talking about, or you're wrong, or you need to be clearer.

I would like to note what you wrote doesn't make any sense.

Shadowdancer doesn't provide lag protection.

Two weapon forms allow predict.

Blademasters can only counter counterables, and one opener at a time, this hardly qualifies as anything.

I think you mean make deathweaver a two-handed form? If this is the case I feel obligated to point out there are significant drawbacks to deathweaver that most people don't know about. I personally only used it in one standard case.

Edit: Still doesn't make sense and I would like to remind everyone about the rules concering selectable skills, so we don't cross any lines.

I believe very strongly that a few of the blademaster skills/mals need to be looked at and toned slightly.

Shadowdancer is very strong when coupled with a particular race. The effects of having strength and dex so high is more than just added hit/dam to say the very least. I will admit that this is not particularly what I see in them as issue provoking as it really only exhibits strength in one combination.

[i will keep these as vague as possible for those who do not know what they do]

Spellbane: If it is critical to keep this in the game, I would like to see it be more reasonable. I believe that a modifier of -10 maximum, but more realistically -5 should be employed.

Deathweaver: Don't be deceived by this skill. It, like spellbane, completely dismantles a certain class and tends to, along with the combination of their other skills, make the fight nothing short of futile.

I believe that blademaster stances and skills should provide an advantage. However, I do not believe in any skill/spell or combination thereof that makes someone elses character nearly useless. That is the definition of unbalance.

They have mastery in your anatomy? Yes, the fight should be challenging, but should not constitute a single skill domination. I only fear what monks would be like if they had such insane anatomy based advantages.

They have a skill that is capable of helping against multiple attacks? Okay, make it an advantage, not a crushing skill that negates the entire opposing class.

Fighting the blademaster class is like kicking a big, spiked rock. Have no confusion, I like that part of it and find it to be their place. They are very hard to kill as they can counter nearly everything thrown at them. I do wish, however, that serious thought is put into some of the affects they can put on people. These things coupled with their already impressive skill set can create unbalanced(I mean this as not a simple advantage) scenarios.

I personally feel that anyone who has dedicated themselves to fighting a single race, should be the utter bane of that race. So, when I chose giant mastery with Taeim, I should be able to kill just about any giant spellcaster. But some elves/drow and ferals might have noticed that they had a pretty easy time for me. That's because most spellcasters/communers can deal with a blademaster pretty easily, unless they are that races mastery.

Deathweaver makes classes with charimies hell to play. Like rangers/necros. I'd say necros worse just for the lack of defenses they have. Tone it? I dunno. Maybe people just havn't found out how to kill blademasters yet. Maybe it's uber powerfull. Never had the gumption to play a blademaster, and probably won't. But, ahh well. There's my worthless opinion and a waste of your time reading it.

I died to Thrikkis a number of times as Taeim. It's all a matter of knowing what you're about, which includes having the right EQ and zombies as a necro.

Right zombies? As in no zombies? Heh.

Nah. When I didn't have my higher up cabal abilities, I wasn't able to beat Thrikkis based purely on the damage his zombies did.

Uhhh...I've seen naked blademasters rip through necro's with nothing but a glaive and a light.

Uhhh...I've seen naked blademasters rip through necro's with nothing but a glaive and a light.

Firstly they didnt do it in shadowdancer i'll tell you that much;)

I believe very strongly that a few of the blademaster skills/mals need to be looked at and toned slightly.

[i will keep these as vague as possible for those who do not know what they do]

Spellbane: If it is critical to keep this in the game, I would like to see it be more reasonable. I believe that a modifier of -10 maximum, but more realistically -5 should be employed.

As I have played some blademasters I would tell you to play them before you go saying all this stuff about them, and when I mean play them play them to 50 and fight every elite player in the game and see how you do. Then you can begin to critize how you think they need to be toned down. The spell bane a blademaster is usually only going to be able to do to one race, so that means all the other races they cant do that to, I think thats fair ten-fold. There is a lot of things I wanna say about this topic but it will reveal too much information that i have found out about blademasters from 2000 hours of trial and error with Chrinchton... What I am saying here is I believe they are fine.

did a double post sorry....

I thought the same thing. Having played several blademasters myself, I'd like to point out that Anithraril is dead on, and I agree with him. Deathweaver has more drawbacks than it has perks.

Roll a blademaster, or do some research.

I agree they dont need anything at all.

I have played them at 50, and have been able to defeat a necro with 3 travens and cabal powers without batting an eyelash while wearing a sharp glaive and a combat lantern. Nothing else. And it was still easy. As well as only 100 in their respective anatomy. I won't bother disclosing names, but the necro was skilled...had powerful cabal abilities, and was well known and feared.

If one would read my post correctly, you may note that I am not saying Shadowdancer is the problem. Nor am I saying deathweaver is overpowered in all situations. In fact, I am saying it is only so in one situation where it has no drawbacks, and works in sync with their skillset to make a class nigh useless against them.

In reference to Taeim, I do know the circumstance of how that necro managed to beat you with deathweaver on. Without giving anything away, it had nothing to do with the necro skillset, and so much to do with racial abilities and luck.

Also, keep in mind that I don't propose to "gimp" any skill at all. Is my post so offensive to the class that it is trendy to claim that I do not know the Blademasters when I suggest that things be 'slightly' altered? I have played them at 50, and I have fought them at 50 with several different classes. I know them quite well and have expressed my opinion based on these experiences.

I want to point out that even with balance there are ways to lag a blademaster excluding sermon, also their ability to counter any ability is countered by their ability to predict which ability is going to be used. Also if there are classes which depend on a single skill to win battles...(I havent played any yet) perhaps those should be looked at first. To be honest I have found that bards (no Joke) do quite well against blademasters. I have played several blademasters to 50, of different races, and in all cases I have found that the deathweaver stance is hardly ever the stance I win in. Blade masters are nice but their abilities are geared around using your opponents abilities against them so why whould rangers and necros be any different? Hence they can beat someone almost naked if the opponent is using all their abiliies. But if said necro had no pets, and was simply stacking mals, and using smaller damage afflictives how would the fight have ended? Figting them can suck but if you think it through, they can be the easiest fights too.

There is a lot of things I wanna say about this topic but it will reveal too much information that i have found out about blademasters from 2000 hours of trial and error with Chrinchton.

Ha, you were Chrinchton? You made me want to roll Loriss after Osroth. I always wondered who it was.

And yeah, Blms are fine IMHO A fully trained blm is like kicking a big spiked rock I agree, so use a hammer its less pain on the foot. (Metaphor)

I never had any trouble with blademaster, and their wirding ways.

But then again a elven Paladin can take a **** Obliterate **** and shrug it off with some cures.

I think you all love those fast killing combos, like 3 trave Necros, and Invockers, and Vampires and what ever. But comes class witch you need to win by atriction and ...

I never had problems with blademasters either. Deathweaver doesn't really affect an ogre ranger with 1400 hp.