Due to the many requests I’ve gotten for Blademaster tips, I’ve decided to
write this guide. I do this for three reasons:
a) As I already mentioned, I get a PM at least once a month asking for skill
explanations, anatomy advices, combo choices, gear and so on. The topic
on blademasters is quite large, and sometimes I have to write long essays
just to explain something. Sometimes, I am simply not in the mood or just
feeling lazy, so I ask the other person to ask more specific questions and
let me know of their race/cabal/align/ethos combo. When I ask that, most
people think that I want to know who they play, so the conversation
simply ends there and I end up being an ******* who wants to kill
newbies.... and that’s not the case (most of the time 
)
I haven’t played for half an year now, and I feel no urge to come back
yet. This makes me forget stuff, so there’s a chance to mislead someone
with my “advice”. I don’t want this to happen, so I will write this now, while I
still remember (most) of their skills and equipment.
c) The current essay that is available is complete crap.
Table of content:
1. In depth explanation of the BLM specific skills in their current state.
**
** This essay is written at 21.06.2013 and reflects how skills work at that date.
1.1 General skills
**
1.2 Stances**
**
1.3 Critical areas**
2. Race/cabal/alignment/ethos. I will try to push the limits as far as
possible here.
3. Equipment (mostly weapons).
4. Playstyle.
1. In depth explanation of the BLM specific skills.
1.1 General skills
Onslaught/chop/bladerush/backpin/pinwheel - Those five skills are
related to each other. You execute one each round and they build up.
Onslaught - some damage
Chop - some more damage
Bladerush - some more damage + an attempt to disarm
Backpin/pinwheel - those two are executed on the fourth round at once.
They deal massive amount of damage and cause bleeding. On top of that,
pinwheel seems to be considered as internal damage and is not affected by
sanctuary. Master all four. They are of paramount importance. Somewhat
hard to master, but you can do that at the ghost and/or werewolves in the
Volcano. Ghosts are unaffected by physical damage and werewolves are
unaffected by poison (or was it disease?) damage. Your pinwheel will hurt
them though.
Double sheath - While this is not a blademaster specific skill, BLM
skillset allows them to utilize it a to a much greater potential than any other
class. This will be explained in greater detail later. Master this by spamming
"sheath weapon; rem weapon"
Critical strike - This skill is how you be a shaman. It allows you to put
short term powerful maledictions on your enemies while doing moderately
high damage to them. Master this while you hunt/train.
Footwork - This is your second attack. Master this while hunting/training.
Blood vow - A very powerful spell. You put it on a weapon of your
choice. The weapon becomes undropable and gains +10 hitroll. It also
gains another bonus depending on your alignment - for neutral BLMs, your
weapon gains the "wrath" ability, for evil/good aligns, your weapon becomes
blessed. I've personally found that the bonus evils/goods get is useless
compared to the bonus neutrals get and how it synergies with BLMs.
Bladework - This is your third attack and dual wield at the same time.
Master this while you hunt/train.
IMPORTANT NOTE: BLMs are very specific with their dual wield. It does not work
the same way it works for other classes. It does not multiply your attacks*2.
It simply allows you to use two weapons. The use of two weapons allows
you to use your fourth and fifth attacks and also allows you to use dual
wield stances, twin counter, powerstrike and predict. With bladework you
can also use two weapons of the same weight.
Powerstrike - Allows your weapons to roll for higher damages.
Simulates having more damroll (don't ask how much more, I don't know).
Works only when you are dual wielding. Master this while you hunt/train.
Balance - Makes you unlagable. Works only with the deathweaver
stance. Master this while you hunt/train.
Vigil - Very nasty skill. Allows you to counter attacks made on you
(with murder) while you sleep. Will do very high damage. Hard to master,
although I consider it as a must. The easiest way to do so, is to make
friends and ask them to help you. Get naked, use demon talismans and
practice weapons. Go to a room with one exit. Go to sleep and ask your
friend to engage you every time you do so. When he attacks you, you will
flee at the only direction available, then return and go to sleep immediately.
Then he will attack you again and so on. You might have to stop at some
point to rest a bit.
Battlesphere - A nice spell. Gives you a large amount of hitroll.
Twin counter - Very nasty skill. Works with predict and Vigil. Vigil, counter
and twin counter are to be mastered at the same time by the way I
described above. That is the fastest way to master those 3 hard to master
skills. If you can not get a friend to help you, you can head to our friends
werewolves and ghosts in the volcano. Have in mind though, that when
a mob gets down to big nasty, you stop countering. If you use weapons
with mundane damage against the ghosts and weapons with poison damage
against the werewolves, they won't suck any damage from your counters.
Predict - A very powerful skill. Allows you to predict most skills, including
trip, bash, bodyslam, blackjack and strangle. And interesting asset that makes
BLMs extremely versatile and annoying to fight. Keep in mind that certain
skills that you use will cancel your prediction - charge, trip, critical strike.
Keep that in mind and use it in your advantage. Can not predict haymaker.
Mastering this is of paramount importance. I've had it at 99% and died
because of it. If it is at 100%, it does not fail. It's hard to master, but
try to master it while hunting/training.
Battlefocus - A nice spell. Gives you some Armour Class (AC).
Battlesphere must be active in order to cast this.
Battle stance - This is your fourth attack which works only when dual
wielding. Other than that, it allows you to choose a position (hight) if your
weapon (no matter of weapon choice). Keep that in mind and don't fight
melees with your weapon high. Also, don't fight mages with your weapon
low. Master this while you hunt/train.
Battletrance - A nice spell. Allows you to see the condition of your
opponent in battle and use acupuncture while you are blind. Must have
Battlefocus up in order to cast this.
Snakespeed - A very useful skill. Kills the opening spell of your opponent.
Works only with two handed weapons. I've never bothered mastering
it. Seemed to never fail anyway.
Deathstrike - Before you die, you will deal some major damage to
yourself and your opponent. I've not only saved my EQ before due to this
skill, but have also managed to loot stuff from the corpse of my opponent.
Very nasty skill against berserkers, which will lose an extremely large amount
of HP right when you die, due to this skill and the end of their rage. Trying
to master it wouldn't be a very wise idea - you might run out of lives before
you do.
Avatar of steel - This is your fifth attack. Works only with dual wield.
Very hard to master. I usually spend some CP on it when I enter my cabal
of choice.
Spellkiller - Very useful skill. Allows you to completely "ban" a spell of
the arsenal of your opponent. Downside is that you have to use a two
handed weapon, and that's not the best choice to use against casters.
This spell, coupled with deathweaver and snakespeed is the bane of
necromancers (although, if you ask Mindflayer, he'll say otherwise 
)
1.2 Stances
There are a total of 7 stances. 3 for dual wield (Bladestorm, Kyosanken,
Ironarm) 3 for two handed weapons (Shadowdancer, Kairishi, Doomsinger)
and 1 for both cases (Deathweaver).
Bladestorm
The positive - Gives you haste (+1 attack, for a total of 6). Allows to
complete the onslaught cycle in 3 rounds (instead of 4) if timed well.
The negative - Lowers your AC by a lot. Your HP/Mana/Move regen sucks.
A lot.
Kyosanken
The positive - Lowers all kind of damage you take. By my experience by
something like 25-30%. Allows you to return fired objects - arrows, bullets
and so on, including thrown objects. Gives you some HP (something like 50)
The negative - one attacks less (for a total of 4 attacks).
Ironarm
The positive - allows you to disarm non-disarmable weapons and stuns your
opponent for 1 round when you do so. Gives you a small amount of damroll,
which is negligible, because your damroll is already boosted by the powerstrike
skill.
The negative - no real downsides, but considering how blademasters are set,
most of the time you will perform better by using one of the other three
stances for two weapons. Still not useless, but it's uses are rather niche.
Doomsinger
The positive - makes your strikes unavoidable.
The negative - sometimes, quite often, your strikes will hit for scratches and
grazes. I've played A LOT of blademasters, and the only time I bothered
wasting practice points on this stances, was my first one. Some people are
stubborn though, and like to use it for training anatomies.
Shadowdancer
The positive - takes the value of your dex, and copies it to your strength.
Also gives a very nice boost to your AC.
The negative - nothing really, but just like ironarm, a very niche stance that
is more useful than other stances in a very limited amount of situations.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me here, because that stat boost
you get from it is hard to ignore. BLMs are not about your score sheet though.
They are about utility, versatility and flexibility, and shadowdancer offers you
nothing in those departments. Only a buff to your hit/dam and AC, and if you
rely on those to beat your opponents as a BLM, then you are doing them
wrong.
Kairishi
The positive - turns your two handed weapon into whip. Or an axe. Or
whatever your heart desires. Gives a nice boost to your hitroll.
The negative - nothing really. The thing about it is that in the situations where
it might be useful, shadowdancer is usually better. Unless of course you are
a low dex race. Only in this case spending points on this stance is reasonable.
Other than that, do not even bother.
Deathweaver - the universal stances.
The positive - enables the "Balance" skill, which makes you unlaggable. Also,
gives you the "weave" defence which replaces dodge. When you fight
multiple opponents at once, every time you weave, you redirect the hit
at one of the other opponents.
The negative - nothing really, except for a personal feeling that the "weave"
defence is a bit less effective than dodge. That's only a feeling though, and
I might be wrong.
1.3 Critical areas
Area Anatomy
------------------------
chest 0 - damage
stomach 20 - makes target hungry
legs 40 - modifies dex by -4 for 0 hours
head 60 - drains a bit mana
wrist 75 - weaken
feet 90 - caltraps
kidneys 101 - poison
temple 104 - lock down 0-1 hour
diaphragm 107 - lag, doesn't work with PS on
eyes 110 - blind - 1 or 0 hours
heart 113 - Spell: spellbane : modifies spelllvl by -5 for 7 hours
lungs 116
spleen 119 - drain 5 hours
solar plexus 120 - lag, 2 or more rounds. Doesn't work with PS on
aorta 121
intestine 126
brain 130
This list I made myself while playing with critical strike and detect magic
potions, and by talking to people. I don't claim it is 100% correct, but I do
claim that the knowledge it gives is enough to be successful in the PK department
as a BLM. That being said, I've never had a BLM with more than 120 anatomy
in any particular race. I've never felt the need for it. When talking about
anatomies though, I know one thing for sure - putting 130 points in one
particular race seems a bit of an overkill which leaves you open to other
common combos. I will post the anatomy choices I find to be the most
effective in the "playstyle" chapter.
2. Race/cabal/alignment/ethos
As with any character, very important part of the creation of any BLM should
be your exact race/aligh/ethos/cabal combo.
There are many combos that synergize extremely well, so I should at least
mention them.
Firstly, I think that halfling BLMs offer the best end game PK prowess. The
bad point about halfling BLMs is that you are VERY limited from a
weapon selection choice. Their low str value makes it very hard to find a
viable dual wield combo.
The second most favourite race are the dwarves. Their huge HP pool
more than compensates for their weakness (unless you are facing dual water
whip wielding Thulgan). Then the result is the following:
Thulgan yells 'hhelp! gyoubu Iis trYinG to sjut Me aapaort!'
You wound Thulgan's kidneys.
Thulgan looks very ill.
Your critical strike MUTILATES Thulgan!
Thulgan has a few scratches.
Gyoubu:
(990hp 443m 398mv)
Thulgan blocks your attack and attempts to strike at the brief opening.
Thulgan's riposte LACERATES you!
Thulgan dodges your attack.
Thulgan blocks your attack and attempts to strike at the brief opening.
Thulgan's riposte MUTILATES you!
Thulgan parries your attack.
The Bone Bow of Anduin's pierce LACERATES you!
Thulgan's spray MANGLES you!
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
You weave out of Thulgan's attack.
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
You weave out of Thulgan's attack.
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
You are burned by the corrosive acid on the Weeping Wire.
Thulgan's acidic bite scratches you.
Some poison barbed gauntlets gleam with lethal poison.
You feel momentarily ill, but it passes.
You parry a black dragon's attack.
A black dragon's poisoned bite grazes you.
A black dragon rears and breathes a cloud of poisonous fumes!
Thulgan has a few scratches.
Gyoubu:
(476hp 441m 398mv) flee
You have gained knowledge about giant!
Thulgan parries your attack.
Thulgan dodges your attack.
Thulgan dodges your attack.
Thulgan's spray LACERATES you!
You weave out of Thulgan's attack.
You weave out of Thulgan's attack.
Thulgan's spray mauls a black dragon.
You weave out of Thulgan's attack.
Thulgan's spray DISMEMBERS you!
Thulgan's spray DISMEMBERS you!
You sure are BLEEDING!
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
You sure are BLEEDING!
Thulgan's spray MASSACRES you!
You sure are BLEEDING!
You are burned by the corrosive acid on the Weeping Wire.
Thulgan's acidic bite scratches you.
You sure are BLEEDING!
You are burned by the corrosive acid on the Weeping Wire.
Thulgan's acidic bite scratches you.
You sure are BLEEDING!
A gruesome mask comes to life, twisting into a look of pure evil and terror!
You feel scared for a second.
You weave out of a black dragon's attack.
A black dragon's poisoned bite grazes Thulgan.
Thulgan has some small wounds and bruises.
Gyoubu:
(172hp 439m 445mv) flee
You flee from combat!
That's with sanctuary up.
Other than that odd case, dwarf BLM are extremely strong and hard to take
down. They also have a much broader weapon selection choice, especially if
you are a lighwalker, which is of paramount importance to BLMs.
Sliths are always a good choice, especially in certain cases. They also have a
broader weapon selection, an additional attack, a HUGE bonus if you are evil
and an autotrip. Bad sides about sliths are that they are dumb as bench. They
are hard to train.They lack the natural resistance of dwarves and halflings,
but they also lack dwarves' vuln. A valid choice for both newbie and veteran
alike. You also have the nice bonus of being a beast race and thus having an
innate 110 anatomy expertise in it, and since I consider it a must, this means
that you are left with a free expertise to put in another race. Which is always
nice.
Those are the three races I consider the best choice for a BLM. You can
always try a human, but sliths beat them in every department. You can also
try elf/drow, but halflings beat elves, and sliths beat drow. Duergar I've tried
playing, but I somewhat didn't like it. They lack a lot compared to their goodie
cousins.
Other than that, undeads have some nice potential.
As far as ethos goes, going chaotic is your best choice, due to a high end
polearm. Going anything other than chaotic is an eventual nerf you place
willingly on yourself.
The actual combos:
A neutral halfling BLM in Gladiator: Arguably one of the strongest (if not
THE strongest) combo in the game. I've seen fast learning first time BLMs
grow extremely powerful with this combo. Fliblin always come to my mind.
The way a BLM synergizes with gladiator is absolutely disgusting. Halfling
extend that synergy even further, offering better defenses, magic resistance,
and no vuln. One very important note here: A certain psi build can completely
shut you down, with ease, and there is nothing you can do about it. But that
goes for any gladiator.
An evil slith BLM in Nexus: A combo with disgusting potential. Again,
Nexus skills synergize very well with the class. A small hint to anyone wanting
to try this combo - invest some training points in mana.
A neutral slith BLM in warder: This basically is very similar to the slith
in Nexus combo, but in its neutral version. I've always wanted to play this
combo, but every time I try to roll one, EyeSeeU's BLMs pop around with
exactly the same combo, and I end up rolling something else. If you can get
around the annoyance of being an outlaw, you will find this combo very
powerful.
A goodie slith/halfing (avatar) BLM in Praetorian: There are certain
praetorian things which go very well with how the class functions. If you can
get an avatar, this combo becomes so powerful that it rivals the halfling in
gladiator one. Opens up some very interesting tactics too. Halfling offers more
defence, while slith offers more offence.
A neutral halfling/dwarf in Syndicate: Syndicate is always a fun cabal
to play, with BLM's partly shamanish abilities, it gets even better. Certain
Syndi skills work quite well certain BLM stances too.
Tribunal: Tribunal is a very restrictive cabal I have little experience
with. It's not very newbie friendly too. That being said, one of the most
famous BLMs in the lands was a dwarf BLM in Tribunal - Chrinchton. So I
guess it's viable.
3. Equipment.
BLMs are quite restrictive when it comes to equipment. Just like monks, you
can wear only light wares. If you are not a magic resistant race, focus more
on that and on hitroll. If you are a magic resistant race, focus mostly on
saves and hitroll. If you are a halfling, pay attention to your STR values. You
might find the crown of might very useful. Try to overcap your STR. If you
don't, you will have troubles with any class that can lower it. A ninja that
nerves you in the right moment can very easily lead to your death.
Some notable wares: the accuracy rings or anything with similar properties,
the acid-etched armplates, the hessians, the terminators/bracelets of lies, the
Mara.
Being in Warmaster can be a great boost in the wares department, because
WM wares are great for BLMs, considering they can't wear the best EQ. Also,
when combined, certain WM wares have some interesting abilities.
The weapons: that's the most interesting part of the EQ section. The
way BLMs work allows them to cover all their weapon needs with very few
weapons. All the weapons you will ever need as a BLM are the following:
-
One handed physical weapon
-
One handed magic weapon
-
A magical two handed weapon
-
A physical two handed weapon
Weapon type does not matter, as long as you can use it.
With those four weapons you can take any combo that comes at you.
Goodies have it a bit easier here, with the awesome mithril sabre available.
Making sure you have a no-rem weapon in your main hand narrows down your
choices extremely. If you are a halfling, which are further restricted by their
low str, things can get pretty difficult. If you are neutral, the awesome mithril
sabre is also out.
Some weapons of interest for main hand: Rokujan, the mithril sabre, the
bastard sword and Durindel (with no-rem sockets), the vorpal sword.
Some weapons of interest for offhand: The rod of stars, sharpclaw, the
godforges sacrifical dagger, the monorod.
The physical two hander: Hell's fury.
The magical two hander: Blood voulge/Arctron.
Note, if you are a neutral halfling, you can still use the Blood voulge, with a
small trick. Figure that yourself.