Sword bm specialists

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Hey, I've been searching these forums for a while, and there's a lot of hype for axe and spear masters, but not so much for swords. I've even seen some nice videos on how axe bms fare in duels and territory wars. My question is, does anyone have any vids of mid game to late game sword bms? I really wanna see how stronger sword bms get.

Also, I know sword bms are supposed to be weaker, but my sword bm just can't keep up with any other character pvp wise. I know I'm relatively low level, but does that low level not apply to other characters?

Sorry, I've been through and through these forums trying to find info on dueling techniques and how to actually play as a sword bm, but all they offer is pretty much stat builds, but not much on actually playing. If any tips could be handed out by you veteran sword blade masters on how to play it would be greatly appreciated.

And of course just like the original question, any links to sword masters in action?

Sunspot - Lost City

Id say its a little too late for you now to be watching videos. You should just go and play ahhmm polish your skills. If you are loosing duels badly its a) your build and(or) equipment sucks; or b) you suck at playin this class.
No one can get into your mind to find out what playing style is best for you, but uhmm basically in 1on1 situations its stun>do as much damage as you can> stun> do as much damage as you can.. etc etc

Samsamsimply - Heavens Tear

For 1v1, Swords are a solid build. You have to Practice technique, you have to learn to stun and hit, stun and hit. Your gear is also very very important. And being a Sword BM, I would hope that your using some of your extra Att points in Vit, prolly about 1 per level, sword builds are usually something like 5str/3dex/2vit for every other level.

Granrey - Sanctuary

I wish I could give you a short answer but I can't.

However, what I can tell you is that your playing style must match your toon skills and attribute points. If not, you will have more problems than the average guy outhere.

I think the big concern on the guides, is that they want you to play your toon to match their recomendations on skills and attribute points. In some guides they completely missed talking about playing styles.

A good example is that they tell you not to put any point on mag (which I agree now, since I changed my playing style). However, you will have less points on MP and you will spend a life time meditating to recover MP, making you relly more on normal attacks. If your playing style is based on using your skills than normal attack, you are in trouble, as it happend to me.

Saying that, it's definitely more efficient for BM to use normal attack and use skills to complement the fight as needed.

Another good example is our ranged skills (we have two). Both are well recomended to level up in the guides. However, I rarely use them. They do good damage but they consume MP that I need for Diamond sutra or for my Drake Sweep when I'm being attacked by several mobs.


Edit:

You must have strategies for different opponents too.

For instance, in case of venos, forget the pet, go after the master (even if you kill the pet, they will summon another one).

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Sunspot - Lost City wrote: »

but uhmm basically in 1on1 situations its stun>do as much damage as you can> stun> do as much damage as you can.. etc etc

Yea I've heard this too, it just seems, except for aeolian blade which has % stun and not too reliable, the only one i have is roar of the pride. And is it normal for the stun to last just as long as the down time? Actually if I'm spamming skills, even on normal mobs, they seem to break out of the stun before my next skill can get out. So basically when I fight mobs it's a matter of damage racing.

When fighting other players, it seems to be about the potions one can use, because I can't spam diamond sutra due to the cool down, and by then I've lost more than the hp I regenerated. So I'm hoping it's just the lower levels, but I've tried watching what other bms do during a duel, and it seems like the only difference is which skills they use. Whether sword spear or axe, they all seem to just run up and hit them as hard as they can. I'm assuming it's not too different from swords though.

Also, about the stats build, that's actually the build I'm using, except I was planning on capping vit temporarily at 40, so I could increase dex to hit more and crit more. I heard that's the strong point of a sword master.

Thanks for all the replies.

Zhoelle - Sanctuary

I'm also interested in this topic. My build is very similar to yours. I've had some challenges with low Vit, but when I use HP and MP regeneration potions, I can rip through mobs pretty fast. I'm currently playing PvE (and with 4 other concurrent characters...), but am starting to consider giving PvP a try.

Since you're similar level to me, here is what I do:

Although Draw Blood (bleed) isn't considered a primary sword skill, I find it useful and efficient.
Bleed->Reg attack until dead.
If it's a Magic mob, throw in some Aeolian Blades to speed things up (and a chance for a stun).
If it's a Ranged mob that annoys you by running away, throw in some Ocean's Edge to slow them so that you stay close and can continue the beat down.

Looking forward to more advice from the "higher ups".

Granrey - Sanctuary

Zhoelle - Sanctuary wrote: »

Although Draw Blood (bleed) isn't considered a primary sword skill, I find it useful and efficient.
Bleed->Reg attack until dead.
If it's a Magic mob, throw in some Aeolian Blades to speed things up (and a chance for a stun).
If it's a Ranged mob that annoys you by running away, throw in some Ocean's Edge to slow them so that you stay close and can continue the beat down.

Honestly, I rarely use any of those anymore but probably is just me. Mobs can't survive my normal attack, even couple levels higher they can't.

with some melee mobs, I use sutra once every 3 mobs.

A suggestion, watch out for mobs that have some weird skill that drains your MP.

Zhoelle - Sanctuary

Granrey - Sanctuary

Originally Posted by Zhoelle - Sanctuary View Post
Although Draw Blood (bleed) isn't considered a primary sword skill, I find it useful and efficient.
Bleed->Reg attack until dead.
If it's a Magic mob, throw in some Aeolian Blades to speed things up (and a chance for a stun).
If it's a Ranged mob that annoys you by running away, throw in some Ocean's Edge to slow them so that you stay close and can continue the beat down.

Honestly, I rarely use any of those anymore but probably is just me. Mobs can't survive my normal attack, even couple levels higher they can't.

with some melee mobs, I use sutra once every 3 mobs.

A suggestion, watch out for mobs that have some weird skill that drains your MP.

Yes, I'm aware that most of my current skills will become outdated, so I do keep an eye on my spirit points (gotta buy new skills soon).
Most effective use of bleed so far:
****-****-bleed-run away (works great on exploding mobs)
Mana drain...eep! Duly noted!

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Although Draw Blood (bleed) isn't considered a primary sword skill, I find it useful and efficient.
Bleed->Reg attack until dead.
If it's a Magic mob, throw in some Aeolian Blades to speed things up (and a chance for a stun).
If it's a Ranged mob that annoys you by running away, throw in some Ocean's Edge to slow them so that you stay close and can continue the beat down.

Looking forward to more advice from the "higher ups".[/QUOTE]

Yea I do that too. Actually I have no problem with mobs, they just take forever to kill. It just seems in comparison to other characters, my bm can't keep up. This is mostly in pvp yes, but also in scenarios of squads grinding. I'm just wondering if it's normal for a bm to be this bad in pvp and if the win goes to the one with the most pots?

But thank you all for the feedback.

Oldbear - Sanctuary

Alright man no solid advice can be given if we don't know how you're built so far. Need some useful info so that we can have a clue why you think swords are weaker.

What are your atr. points? STR VIT MAG DEX?

What weapon you use? 1-3star? any sockets? with what soulgems? any status adds?

What about your defensive gear? your armor? have you filled the sockets and with what?

What is your usual dueling skill sequence?
What skills you have the strongest now and what skills have you left behind?
Are your passive skills such as sword mastery up to date?

After answers to these it is possible to give some guidelines where to go from here

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Oldbear - Sanctuary wrote: »

Alright man no solid advice can be given if we don't know how you're built so far. Need some useful info so that we can have a clue why you think swords are weaker.

What are your atr. points? STR VIT MAG DEX?

What weapon you use? 1-3star? any sockets? with what soulgems? any status adds?

What about your defensive gear? your armor? have you filled the sockets and with what?

What is your usual dueling skill sequence?
What skills you have the strongest now and what skills have you left behind?
Are your passive skills such as sword mastery up to date?

After answers to these it is possible to give some guidelines where to go from here

With all bonuses from my gear,

vit- 44
str - 98
dex - 65

right now I'm using the lvl 30 rank gear you buy once you attain rank 1. Swords, I'm using dual blades that I crafted 2 star. No sockets in weapon, but the sockets in the armor are filled with hp stones.

The skills I use to fight are usually start with draw blood then aeolian blade for a chance to stun. If the stun works follow up with other skills for extra damage. If the stun doesn't work I use roar of the pride, which only gives me a length of one attack while they're stunned.

Sword mastery is lvl 2, I try to keep my buffs no more than 1 lvl out of date, and same with aeolian blade.

I can't be sure of course, but I'm pretty sure the opponents heal with pots, in which case I'm not sure how to fight that except with using pots of my own. But they never seem to be able to keep up with the damage I take.

Are guardian and spirit charms the answer to this case then?

Granrey - Sanctuary

Are you using diamond sutra and aura of the golden bell?

If not you should.

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Granrey - Sanctuary wrote: »

Are you using diamond sutra and aura of the golden bell?

If not you should.

Yea I use it, but the cool down is too long for it to be effective in the fights I've had. Aura of the golden bell is always on, but archers have that annoying magic attack the goes through it.

Seablue - Sanctuary

As sunspot said "Stun them". No matter what kind of opponent you're up against stun them first. You only have 2 stuns but still you should spam them. The longer they stay still the more chance you have of winning.

Shamino - Sanctuary

Your biggest issue is that your a BM in low level pvp, which is a very bad combination.

1. As a BM your highest damage skills are weapon specific and all come at 39, 49 and 59.

2. Of the low level attack skills the only one really useful for PvP is Aoelian blade, Drakes ray is useful for ranged PvP (if people run) although sword and spear BM's have weapon specific ranged skills that do much higher damage at high levels.

3. The classes one would normally try and pk as a BM have much higher skill damage than you at level meaning you have to work very hard to get the kill compared to when your higher level.

As you get to higher level you will start to acquire good skills for PvP and with practice plus the longer stun duration of roar of the pride you can do quite well in PvP battles

Shadowdragon - Harshlands

Okay thank you all for the replies and tips. I'll try to put them to use once I get to those higher levels.