Role of a BladeMaster

breezshadow

After reading countless posts i can't understand wht the role of a BM is in a party

I have a few hunches though:

1. Everything xcept healing others : I mean jack of all trades and master of none b:chuckle

2. AoE : Since they use Heavy Armor , they can safely AoE wit hthe help of a cleric . Even if mon does leave the tank , u can still survive and dish out a few hits to kill it. In other words go into the middle and AoEb:victory

3. Stun : Stun everyone and everything fr DDs to kill b:pleased

4. Tank : Go in the middle and steam strike thingy the boss man and allow DDs to kill

5. Jump in dish in a few hits and jump back he way u came [KS]

6. Luring : Use skills like will of bodhisatva[fr stunning / slowing etc type mobs] and cloud sprint to lure mobs

7. All of the above

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear

Pretty much you got it, I would call the Bm's the second line of defense, in keeping your healer and DD's from getting dead. I am always a step or two behind the tank and if for some reason the tank losses aggro on any mob, I am chasing down that mob and trying to get it to come at me instead of my healer or DD's in the squad. That is my major roll, and if need be, I will tank, but only in emergencies.

breezshadow

Hmm .... understood but id like a more explained answer but i guess it will do

Nyways ty and here is another question :


I m gonna be making a axe BM but am heavy confused which skills r worth it??

Currently i m cosidering the following skills:

AoE skills [coz i like to AoE]

a.Fan Of Flames

b.Drake's Sweep

c.Highland Cleaver

d.Fissure

e.Roar of the Pride

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Buff skills .

f.Aura of Golden Bell

g.Cloud Sprint followed by

h.Will Of Bodhisatva

i.Alter marrow magical [lv 2]

j.Alter marrow physical [MAXED]

k.And of course ...... Diamond Sutra

===========

Misc.

l.Leap Back [lv 1 fr tricky situations]

m.Axe/Hammer Mastery

n.Aeolian Blade

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As u can see these are about 14 skills . Maintaining 14 skills maxed or atleast 11 maxed [excluding the ones to be left at lower lvl and will is only 1 lvl] is pretty much not possible unless i die and grind which i suppose is foolish .

So can someone plz help me shred down that list plz??

BTW

I was also considering

o.Drake's Ray coz its ranged

and

p.Drakes Bash coz it seems to be harder hitter

but as far as i have noticed ppl aren't very much in their favor fr the low lvls
[Considering that at 70+ i have enough pts to max all skills]

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear

always max your mastery as soon as you can, it increases your base damage. it is a must,

your buff in my mind is super important too, it is a very nice buff. And your diamond sutra is a life saver when your soloing or have no healer available to keep you alive.

A-E, I agree with all of those, you will use them lots. Aeolian blade i use alot also.

Your alter Marrows...I am at level 3 on both of them and really never use them.

So, to clarify my randomness.

in priority I would go like this.


1.)Axe Mastery
2.)Bell
3.)Fissure
4.)Highland Cleave
5.)Drake Sweep
6.)Roar
7.)Sutra

I would try to keep these maxed, all the others are personal prefrence, I have my cloud sprint at 6 and it gives me plenty of burst
the leaps, I have them both at level 1 and am good with that

I personally use fame of flames and Aeolian blade all the time, I am primarily a sword BM, but I am building my Axe Tree for the Aoe's. Sword doesnt have any specialized Aoe's except for Myriad Sword, and I have not reached that level yet.

And for more detail on what your purpose is in squads. I generally would say that your first priority is close to that of a tank role, your there to make sure your other members don't take the hits, you can handle the hits much better than anyone except a barb, and in FB's sometimes the multiple mobs can become more than one barb can handle, sometimes a wizzy pulls aggro due to their nuker nature, this means, your gonna attack with a barb, But you need to keep your eyes on the mobs all around you and keep your eyes on your squad members who are sitting back to either heal or to DD, you will find yourself chasing down mobs or running back to the group to clean up any mob that may come up from behind. And when your not doing that, your dealing damage, your helping the barb take as minimal damage as possible by getting the mobs gone as quickly as possible without pulling aggro.

A lot of times I will grind with my PWI wife, she is a Wizzy, when it is just the two of us, I will attack the mob first to try to get aggro then she will hit the mob to deal the real damage, so in that case I would call my roll a tank.

Being a Bm means your roll is multi-purpose, but, bottom line is your there to clean up, your there to do whatever the squad needs you to do, it is hard to black and white your roll like you can with a barb or a cleric, or wizzy or archer. They are all very defined in what they do.

Just look at yourself as a helper in all asspects except healing. your their to take damage and give damage.

Hope this is more what your looking for...if not, I am here all dayb:laugh

Bobncut - Sanctuary

In your list of roles, you have a lot of things that are not really consistent with each other in the same party. That's because we fill the gaps (which is the best way I can summarize a blademaster's role in any group). If you have a classic squad for an FB (barb, cleric, veno-puller, and assorted damage dealers), you don't need to be doing the tank job and you probably don't need to be doing a lot of AOEs. You will be mostly acting as another damage dealer unless something goes wrong and the party needs another tank (main tank goes down, say, or additional mobs get aggro on the squishies and he can't get to them). In those cases, you use stuns, AOEs, your self-healing, or whatever else you can think of to keep the critical healer(s) alive.

For other party combinations and other strategies than the classic pull-aggro-kill slog, you might be mostly adding your stuns or AOEs to the overall approach. For example, in a 202020 run recently, we had two BMs and no tank at all. By alternating stuns, we pretty much tanked the mobs you need for this quest without worrying about aggro. Creative, flexible solutions are what we do.

As for skills, Sam's list of priorities is good. I'd add a couple of details. First, you can get by with a low level diamond sutra for a long time. This is a critical skill, but the benefit is mostly in that initial 20% heal you get at level 1. Roar has a bit of that nature also. You get a huge chance of stun right from level 1. You will want to level these, but they can be a slightly lower priority for you. Fan of Flames is hard to line up well and has low damage, I'd put it low on the priority list.

AdvanceZero - Heavens Tear

To sum up what everyone else has said....our role is the "Janitor" we pick up everyones mess ups or oversights.

I personally love my bleed skill.(i am axe hammer path) opening with draw blood is great..you get one normal hit and about 2-3 hit (DOT). and it is cheap on mana. Good for grinding until you can get all your AoE's up to par...but thats just my humble opinion.

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear

lol, I did have troubles with describing what our role really is because it is all over the place. I agree, we are not a true tank and can only do it in spurts or in emergencies. I guess what it comes down to is, my mindset is to make sure everyone stays alive, i am not there to do massive damage and i am not there to be a primary tank...Just whatever it takes at that specific moment to make sure my members don't go belly up

I agree with roar, nice skill to have but leveling it should not be a priority.

i do love my sutra when I am solo though. It keeps me from meditating...ever, and it keeps my charm from burning up so quick.


And Zero, you echo lots of peoples opinion, bleed has usefullness, i have never really leveled it but am considering it.

Bobncut - Sanctuary

It isn't just in emergencies. We can also take some of the pressure off the guild's barbs to tank things a few levels below us. If the alternative is another round of guild chat "There aren't ANY tanks available for ..." and you think you can do it, offer to try.

On Diamond Sutra, I'm definitely a fan of this skill too. In grinding, keeping a spark available for Sutra determines a lot of what other skills I will use. But, levelling it only increases the amount of extra points this skill heals over time (after the initial 20% boost). I don't think I bothered to get level 2 until I was about level 60 (as one of my less succesful approaches to dealing with the profusion of magic attack mobs at that point). So, get it and use it all the time, but you can level it even more slowly than roar.

breezshadow

Thanx fr the replies

I think i m gonna put draw blood b/w bell and fissure to ease my lvling till like lv 50 or so whn i actually strt to AoE grind .

Wyeth - Heavens Tear

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear wrote: »

lol, I did have troubles with describing what our role really is because it is all over the place. I agree, we are not a true tank and can only do it in spurts or in emergencies. I guess what it comes down to is, my mindset is to make sure everyone stays alive, i am not there to do massive damage and i am not there to be a primary tank...Just whatever it takes at that specific moment to make sure my members don't go belly up

I agree with roar, nice skill to have but leveling it should not be a priority.

i do love my sutra when I am solo though. It keeps me from meditating...ever, and it keeps my charm from burning up so quick.


And Zero, you echo lots of peoples opinion, bleed has usefullness, i have never really leveled it but am considering it.

First of all. I've tanked the first boss on squad mode TT2-1. We are no emergency tank, now I'm only saying this to prove that we can tank a lot of things, don't get me wrong I'm no tank.

2nd. Roar of the Pride IS a priority. lvl 10 asap.

Wyeth - Heavens Tear

I'm also wondering what exactly the party set up is that we are all assuming?!

Theres a lot of different situations, for example, I can run thru FB29 solo, tank the boss without clerics.

On the other hand its useful to have a BM in TT parties as a damage dealer, as we can also stun mobs being pulled, and take aggro if there are too many mobs for the tank to handle, etc.

I wouldn't expect any who posted here to understand this...considered you're all under 60, save the 72 who posted before.

Ladyvieira - Heavens Tear

Alot of good things said so far.

I'd like to add that Sutra is good at any level, the insta 20% HP is the main purpose, leveling passed 4 or so does not look cost effective for my mana.

Agreed, Roar is number one priority. It saves lives, resets sticky situations, stun-lock ftw, and holds aggro when you duo zenn with a cleric.

Maybe I'll see you in-game!

-V

breezshadow

Yes i m <60 i m lv 0 [haven't even made the char yet]

And i m w8ing fr new pve server to strt .



Nyways which is better to take as my oppening and finishing skill fr low lvl grinding ??

Options are :

1.Draw Blood
2.Stream Strike
3.Drake's Ray
4.Aeolian Blade

Purple - Lost City

Didn't read topic, but came to say BMs are for aggro stealing from bad tanks. >:]b:bye

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear

I guess you should strike everything I have said as useless, since My Bm is below level 60.

Listen to the the guy who says very little about anything except about how special he is.

I would hope you could solo 29...I can solo 29 with my lowly level 53Bm


Sorry to flame.....but you just pissed me the hell right off

Lyndura - Lost City

Roles:

- Give physical defense buff to the party.
- Stunning.
- Damage Dealer but not a main one.
- Depending on your equipment/the boss, you can be a tank.

Wyeth - Heavens Tear

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I guess you should strike everything I have said as useless, since My Bm is below level 60.

Listen to the the guy who says very little about anything except about how special he is.

I would hope you could solo 29...I can solo 29 with my lowly level 53Bm


Sorry to flame.....but you just pissed me the hell right off

I will strike everything you said as useless. You haven't the experience.

Also I'd like a video of you solo'ing fb29 with your lvl 53. I guarantee, no clerics, no DDs, just you, Quingzi will **** your face.