f0xx Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 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: 1) One handed physical weapon 2) One handed magic weapon 3) A magical two handed weapon 4) 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0xx Posted July 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 4. Playstyle. Just like with monks, wise choice of stances and skills to accompany them are the difference between own and get owned. If you are a new player trying to learn the class, approach the subject with an open mind, because BLMs are the most versatile class in the game. You can counter absolutely any of the normal classes and most of the quest ones and you don't even need that much gear to do so. The attention from EQ is moved away when you play a BLM, but is placed with double the emphasis on your skill as a player. Not just on your PK skills though, but on your planning skills too - have you chosen a combo with good synergy? The weapon combo? The anatomies? The surroundings? The weapon position? The preferred hand? Your success depends on many variables with different importance. Sometimes the best tactics seem counter-intuitive. Most of the times it takes experience and patience to learn. A lot of patience. I will start with the anatomy expertises and mastery, because they seem the most universal and situation independent. First of all, the hardest fights will be decked melees, and since most melees are giants - some points in giants are needed. If you look at the list with critical strikes, you will see that most of the criticals above 110 are either useless against melees or are already covered by other criticals. Spellbane for example is useless against a melee. So is the drained effect, since you have access to poison. So is the solar plexus since you already have diaphragm (although diaphragm is inferior, but still). All the areas we need against melees are eyes, kidneys, and feet. Therefore, an expertise (110) in giants is enough. Your other hard fights will be against hybrids/communers and certain casters. Shamans, clerics, druids, paladins, dark knights and battlemages are always a tough fight, especially if you are not magic resistant. Picking the elf anatomy will cover a lot of that and some more. The desired areas here are the feet, heart and spleen, so a mastery (120) in those is needed. With those two selections you've already covered a very large section of your troubles and you are left with one more expertise (110). This one I prefer to place at a race that usually bothers me and/or is largely present and where the criticals present in the zone will be useful, i.e. the individuals that present that group must by melees and/or unable to easily cure the poison and blind affect that is characteristic for the 110 critical zone. I find that picking beast suits those criteria the best. Beast coveres sliths, ferals, minotaurs and werebeasts if I remember correctly. All of those are mainly melees and rogues, so your poisons and blinds will not be wasted. Also, being able to poison rogues on will is a huge advantage. So those three races I consider the most valuable and wise to invest anatomies in: 1) Giant - 110 2) Elf - 120 3) Beast - 110 If you are a slith, beast comes at 110 by default, so you can choose to invest your beast expertise at Uniques for example. That will allow you to blind vampires, liches, undeads and illithids which is huge advantage. The actual tactics and where exactly BLMs fail to be effective: I will go in details in how I like to fight most combos. This part I consider the most important part of this guide since it sums up all my experience and things I've learned via trial and error. First of all, lets assume one is the most stereotypical type of blademaster - an averagely dressed uncaballed neutral halfling. Secondly, always make sure you are attacking only with one hand, since you (should) have a mundane and a magic weapon in your two hands. Attacking with your one hand will also make your weapon procs twice instead of once. Facing a decked warrior: First of all, remember that you are outgunned. Playing like a normal melee will result in your death. The warrior will either be a giant, ogre or a minotaur, which means that you should have at least an expertise anatomy in their race, even if they are a slith or a feral, you still do. There are two ways to approach the combat: If you know your opponent is smart, dual wield and go in deathweaver. Utilize your criticals. ALWAYS keep them poisoned, blind when possible. Change your predictions, from dirt, to bash, to trip. This will make them eat twin counters from time to time. Also, let them engage. This will also make them eat twin counters. Flee and sleep each tick. Use your acupuncture early so it refreshes fast. Eventually they will run to a temple to heal the poison. At this point you start to get more aggressive. Keep that poison on them at all cost. Make sure you enfeeble them as well. Play more like a shaman than a warrior. Remember that time is on your side here and be patient, but don't be afraid to become aggressive when they start running. If you are eating too much damage (which you probably are), try switching to polearm from time to time and see how you feel. I personally prefer to dual wield though, due to the added offense and twin counters. You can also switch from dual wield to polearm fast via doublesheat and "draw". The second way to approach the situation is by going in kyosanken. This a bit more risky since you have to be predicting their bash, but still must poison and enfeeble them. Returning the fire from their arrows will most likely make them remove their arrows, which on the other side will allow you to twin counter when they engage you, otherwise when they engage with murder they first shoot and you don't counter. You can also later switch to deathweaver and they will most likely not put their arrows back. Weapons should be low. Facing a decked berseker: Berserkers are considered to be the bane of blademasters, mostly due to the fact that you can not predict their haymaker. And while that is true, you can still be cautious and keep your eyes open. It's very important to not lag yourself, or you will die. When you see that haymaker land and take out your deathweaver or prediction (if you are predicting the bodyslam) run fast and first thing you do is put a prediction for the bodyslam. Many zerkers will run after you spamming bodyslam which will make them eat counters. Other than that, your fight should be very much like a fight against a warrior in deathweaver. Keep them poisoned and enfeebled and spam onslaughts. Weapon should be low. Facing a decked ranger: I usually like to start in kyosanken and force them to remove their bow, which is huge if they are archers. If they are trackers, you will also return their thrown objects. Smart rangers usually have the weather prepared and will thunderstorm you. That will hurt you a lot. If you see them doing that, you can go either in deathweaver or shadowdance and spellkill the thunderstorm. If they see you using a polearm though, they will put their arrows back and kick dirt/shoot you from afar. So smart rangers are usually a tough fight. You can use your doublesheat to great extend here. Also, make sure you keep them poisoned so they can't camouflage. Another thing you can try is fighting them in an area where they can't thunderstorm you. Weapons should be low. Facing decked shamans/clerics: Usually, those are somewhat easy fights if you play them right. You can use either ironarm or haste for those fights. I prefer ironarm for the occasional well timed lag. Criticals are your most important weapon in those fights though. That's why you picked that elven mastery after all. Start with putting spellbane on them. Once that is on them, they should have hard time landing spells on you. The next crit should be the drained effect. Now they will have hard time regenerating too. Follow with caltraps and the cycle is closed. Keep an eye on the time you've landed those crits. It's of huge importance to put them back on once they expire. If the cleric/shaman you face is a feral or fire giant or storm giant, make sure you are using the appropriate weapon and keep blinding/poisoning/enfeebling them. If it's a dwarf, use them water weapons. You can cover all those combos with a simple mundane weapon + rod of stars. Weapons should be high. Facing rogues: Fighting rogues is the same as fighting them with a warrior, with the exception that you now have predict, so they shouldn't be able to put you to sleep. If they try to, you will counter, and if it is a race that you have at least an expertise in, you should poison them immediately. Ironarm is usually a good choice against thieves. Kyosanken is usually a good choice against ninjas. You can try shadow dancer as well, when using the blood voulge. Weapons should be high/low depending on how you feel. Facing invokers: Those are some of the easiest fights in my opinion. All you have to do is put your weapons high, use ironarm and time your disarms, so you disarm them right before they execute a heavy lag spell like hellstream. That way they end up lagged for 3 rounds weaponless. Weapons should be high. Facing necromancers: Again some of the easiest fights. Just use deathweaver and a polearm. Spellkill dispel. Be weary of necromancers trying to weaken you. If you drop your weapon, and get bashed, you will die. Weapon should be high. Facing hybrids: Dark knights and paladins are a hard stuff. Against paladins I usually use ironarm, with criticals and onslaughts, but you can't really kill a smart paladin, unless it's an elf. Dark-knights I consider the second most versatile class after BLMs, and they have an arsenal as big as yours. Basically, watch what they use and try to counter it. If they play like shaman, spellkill that magic missile. If they play like melee, use predict more. Smart criticals, onslaughts and timed disarms are the key to success. Smart dakn knights though, are generally a very tough fight. Approach with caution. Facing a battlemage: If the battlemage is an elf or drow, fight them like you would fight a shaman/cleric. Couple your ironarm stance with spellkill and fast draws of your polearm and killing either their sharp metal or searing beam, depending on the time of the day. If they have a vuln make sure you are hitting it. Be sure to use caltraps critical on them, since they will most likely be using slow too, and that will make their movement drain VERY fast. You can also use the more conservative way and go straight into shadow dancer, I've found that works well enough too. Facing a monk: Most of the time I would use deathweaver and predict their dirt. You can also go with shadow dancer and doublegrip. Onslaughts, criticals and chasing is your key to success. Facing other blademasters: If the other BLM is smart, it will be a tough fight, which is generally decided before it has began. That one with the better synergy and weapons usually wins. But to have a chance, make sure you are either in ironarm or shadowdancer/kairishi(staff) and have your weapon double gripped. That's one of the situations I hate most, since any of the sides can go turtle mode And victory will be hard. Lastly, remember those are just rough guides, there is no way possible I can cover everything I want to. The best way to play a BLM is to experiment everything and see what suits your style best. If you find something works well against certain opponents, don't just stick to that combo, because eventually they will adapt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Implementor Anume Posted July 5, 2013 Implementor Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Pity you made this one before the blademaster changes are coming out (will probably be ready next month or so). In general, some very useful info, a few very small inaccuracies. Some of it will unfortunately not be as valid any more after the changes (some of the changes were developed out of things you suggested ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0xx Posted July 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 That's great to hear. Would love learning my favourite class again, eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mya Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 First of all. This is a SICK guide. Very well done. I'm going to get some very nasty pain due to this document... 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. You missed one thing on Kairishi, which in my view is the best of the stance. You now have 100% weapon knowledge on your opponent weapon. This can be great vs dual axe wielding Mino Zerkers. Or against a Ogre Warrior with dual wielding water whips. , specially if you go staff. You just turned it into a hit/dam roll war. Since you are now facing a opponent with the most offensive and lest defensive weapon, against your least offensive and more offensive weapon. But then again this is just theoretic. KAIRISHI Syntax: cast 'kairishi' weapontype A ritualistic stance meant to be used with two handed weapons. While under its effects the blademaster can mimic the movements of his opponent's weapon, while at the same time using his own blade in a style of another weapon type. When in this stance, your current weapon's ratings ( attack, defense, disarm etc.) will be of the weapontype you've chosen. Additionally, because the blademaster can mimic his opponent's weapon, your skill with your enemy's weapon is equal to the skill with your weapon. See also: HELP BLADELORE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mya Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Pity you made this one before the blademaster changes are coming out (will probably be ready next month or so). In general, some very useful info, a few very small inaccuracies. Some of it will unfortunately not be as valid any more after the changes (some of the changes were developed out of things you suggested ). Yes!!! Finally no more magic resist tetraplegic dwarves. (crosses fingers) Also, Dwarven BLM are no longer as easy, due to the new 2h high damage water mace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyzarius Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 you should point out that the drawback for stances is inherit in the forced weapon type and what is associated with that type. Example, Shadowdancer. You have to use a two hadned weapon, so you cannot predict. Bladestorm, you have to use dual weapons, so you cannot spellkill. This can make or break you considering your opponent types. Against a warrior, as a blm you never want to end up locked in a twohander stance or your going to get lag locked. Inversely, against a caster you want to always two hand so you can control their spell set with spellkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mali Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Nice guide, Foxx, and it seems to have scored you some points with Mya. Mission accomplished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dead Voodoo Doll Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 ...and it seems to have scored you some points with Mya. Mission accomplished! lawlz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celerity Posted July 12, 2013 Report Share Posted July 12, 2013 A PK log would help too, especially if you point out and comment the tactics as they are being used. 1000% better than the old guide! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atticus Posted July 13, 2013 Report Share Posted July 13, 2013 Wish I had this as brayden, though you gave me soo much advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hepheus Posted July 13, 2013 Report Share Posted July 13, 2013 He's had some nice BLM's. Well done here. Chrinchton was also one of the first blademasters so I'm not sure if his success in Justice/Tribunal can really be compared, though I could see a blademaster being quite strong in Tribunal for several reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atticus Posted July 13, 2013 Report Share Posted July 13, 2013 A Blm with a pet that can lag like brutal. Same with watcher though withthe dragon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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