Blademaster FAQ, read before posting.

Kaste - Sanctuary

Due to some complaints about the FAQ of Josh, I decided to rewrite the FAQ thread. Please read this before opening a new thread. If you have questions, feel free to ask here. Basically my thread is the not-so-aggressive version of the sickie that Josh has. Trying to update it as much as possible.

New links:

A useful guide:All Path BM

FAQ:

I decided to play Blademaster. What is my job?
- A BM is mainly a DD (damage dealer). His job is simple: Kill. AoE damage on monsters, DPS on bosses.
- A BM is not the best single target DD in the game. Assassins with equal equipment outdamage you easily. However, being a BM provides you more HP, more defenses and therefore more survivability.
- Once you have all your axe skills you can cause some SERIOUS AoE damage to your enemies. Yes, Mage has Dragon's Breathe and yes, archer has barrage and also yes, Seeker has his kind of AoE too. But wielding some good zerk axes, using your skills will result in a higher damage output then the constant output of the one who were mentioned before. Both have the pros and cons.

Where should I put my stat points in?
- Go for a 2 DEX and 3 STR per level. With this, you will be able to use all weapons, which is required in order to be a good BM. Stop putting points into DEX as soon as it reaches 200 without equip. You will not need more as the best fists in game you will ever equip require 203 DEX.

- MAG is useless for a BM, as it increases magic damage and magic defense. The magic attack is useless on us and the defense can easily be covered with magical defense items.
- VIT can be used to level up if you want to, however you will have to restat it. It increases your HP, HP regeneration and defenses.
-STR is needed for the Heavy Armor and the Axes. It also increases your physical damage and physical defense.
- DEX is needed for fists. It also increases Accuracy/Evasion and chance of critical hit (20 DEX = 1%).

What weapon/armor should I use?
- Up to like level 70 you will be perfectly fine using NPC equipment and quest rewards.
- As for weapon types, use all 4 weapons. Following the build mentioned above, it will be no problem to do so. You will have a maximized damage output.
- A good BM can use all weapons, Axes for AoE, Poles for CC, Swords for lifesaving and fists for DPS. Axe and Fist always have priority above Pole and Swords.
- Use heavy armor. You will never wear arcane armor, as it was made for magic classes. Light armor will only be an option for endgame. Heavy armor gives the most physical defense and HP per refinement. Getting Light armor will nerf both, increasing your magic defense by unnoticeable amounts.
- For ornaments, get magic defense. You will need the magic defense.
- You can go for a classic VIT-Axe build of you want to TW, although this is not recommended.


Some items you should get:

☆Misty Forest Ring
A very nice ring you will be able to keep for a long time. The 50% Accuracy stat is very important, as it will make you miss less. Getting 2 of those will make you hit every monster with 99%.

☆Calamity Axes of Blood
Some of the best axes to get until endgame. Cheap and with enormous damage output.

☆Annihilator of Souls
I liked these fists, as they allow you to save money. If you go do quests and kill the required monsters by using these fists, you will not run out of MP. Low on HP? Diamond Sutra will heal you. You will always have enough Chi and MP for Sutra.

What stones to put in sockets?
- Physical attack in weapons.
- HP until endgame
- Endgame JoSD > Vit stone> Citrine > DoD

Michael - Harshlands wrote: »

Attack sharding is a PvE only option for BM's as you would lack the survivability to get into range in group pvp if you were DoT sharded.

I do think that a discussion of all possible builds for BM's would be significantly too long for a FAQ, however a brief list of gears and set bonuses that give BM's an advantage would proabably be possible Acc%/Attack level/Def level/Interval etc

For example (just Accuracy Items, the following is the header followed by the 4 items in the category)

Accuracy Percent Items

Misty Ring Level 77: +104 pattack, +5 vit, + 50% acc, Cheap and easy to obtain good while getting better rings

Sign of Frost: Chaos Level 95 : +97 pattack +200 mdef +3% crit + 50% acc, Much better defence than misty refines well for pdef (+36 at +1, +802 at +10

Sky Cover Level 100: +114 Pattack, + 2 Attack level, + 3% crit + 50% accuracy, Slightly better DDing ring than SoF:C, however extremely difficult to obtain from public quest 3, Refines Extremely well for pdef (+42 at +1, +936 at +10) for those builds that require extra defence.

Ring of Trauma level 101: +210 pattack, + 5 Def level, + 3% crit, -6% channel + 50% acc, Strongest DD ring available to BM's, Expensive (requires 300k rep and alot of other items), Defence level covers the fact that the ring cannot be refined

What skills do I level up?
Is kind of a long topic, but I can quicky tell you what weapon-specific skills to go for:

Axe:
Drake Bash: Very nice skill that has a 100% chance of stun. Get it.
Highland Cleave: Deals very high AoE damage. Get it as it goes.
Fissure: Medium damage and slow. Get it if you do PvP.
Heavens Flame: One of the reasons why a BM is a BM. Makes all targets in area recieve increased damage. Max ASAP.

Pole:
Save your spirit for other skills first.

Sword:
Save your spirit for other skills first.

Fist:
Vacuous Palm: Useless. Get level 1 and leave it.
Shaowless kick: Nice. It interrupts casts, good for both, PvE and PvP. Leave at level 1.
Cyclone Heel: Increases your attack speed. Very nice to increase your PvE DPS. Get it.
Drake's Breath Bash: Not much of a priority to get. Mainly useful to get some bonus damage, I'd get it on level 1 and only level when you got spare spirit.

I have reached level 89. What cultivation should I choose?
Demon. There is the eternal discussion about Sage vs Demon. I'd suggest you to go demon, as you will become demon at level 89 and have easy instance farming, until you actually reach level 100+. When you are level 100+ you can actually get equipment to reach 5 APS as sage. Check on the skills and decide for yourself:

All Demon/Sage skills

The latest discussion about it:

Demon/Sage discussion

People are talking about APS?
- APS means attacks per second. If you are high level, you can reach up to 5 attacks per second as a BM, which, obviously hurts.
- Against popular believe, this is mainly useful for PvE. The boss (that is, in most cases) will just stand there and get his butt kicked. In PvP you can possibly use it, but other people will not act as bosses do, xD.
- You can accomplish that by getting items with -interval. Having -0.45 interval will result in having 5 attacks per second, using fists + speed buff.

Here a few examples:

☆Bracers of Blood Moon
☆Gorenox Vanity
- Currently having high attack speed and fists is needed for endgame.
- You can boost your attack speed in multiple ways, Cyclone Heel and Demon Spark for example.


Demon VS Sage regarding 5 APS

Both cultivations can reach 5 APS, demon being the cheaper one.

Demon:
- Can reach 5 APS with -0.4 interval.
- Has 2 natural ways of buffing speed, Heel and Spark (where Heel does not result in 5 APS, but 4)
- Better defenses

APS Demon BM Example

Sage:
- Can reach 5 APS with -0.45 interval.
- Has 1 natural way of buffing speed, Heel
- Has better tanking abilities

APS Sage BM Example


Which Genie should I use?
- It doesn't really matter which one you use, but I'd recommend Zeal (Because of pulling abilities).
Possible skills:
- Second Wind
- Tree of Protection
- Extreme Poison
- Tangling Mire
- True Emptiness
- Alpha Male
- Bramble Rage
- Occult Ice
- Holy Path
- Cloud Eruption

Is my build correct?
Well there were a lot of people posting new threads asking for that. Don't do that. But now on this thread, just fill in the calculator and show it to us. We will then give you feedback.

http://pwcalc.com/

My question was not answered with the OP.
Then post it, we will help .



Add-on:
- Thanks to Joshcja for giving me the base post to build on.
- Pro BMs, tell me what to add/remove/edit, don't troll.
- Thanks to Kniraven
- Thanks to Michael
- Newbies, we will gladly try to help you out.

Agatio - Harshlands

I like Joshcja's FAQ more

Kaste - Sanctuary

Agatio - Harshlands wrote: »

I like Joshcja's FAQ more

People QQ around about him being too harsh. So I tried to make it the softie version ^^. If people think that his is still better, I will delete this one.

Steopie - Heavens Tear

I will post constructively here seeing as you asked nicely for feedback on the other topic.

Starting from the top and working down:

You link to guides. Why arent they good enough? what do they lack? what will this FAQ give that they dont. The guides are very old. Are they outdated? Has BM play changed in many ways since those guides were 'published'?

BMs role? Are BMs good DD's? how do they compare to archers and sins? How do their Aoes compare? Is a BM always a 'DD'? A lot of the time a BM can be seen as a crowd control class. Why? Do you need any differences in builds to do so?

Stats: Is 3/2 the only way? Why not stat magic and vit? what are the benefits of statting each of the 4 attributes? How do different builds differ in their stat allocation? why cap at 200 dex? 200 dex with or without gear?

Gear: Why use HA? Why use all 4 weps? Which weps should be priority? Why are the calamaties , misties and annihilator of souls good gear? When should a BM stop and worry about working on their gear? What are good endgame goals?

Skills:
How does leveling certain skills up benefit a BM to their role in a party? Why are other skills seen as better than others? Earlier you said 'use all 4 weps' but now you claim sword and pole arent as needed? Why are those skills inferior?

DBB is also seen as good to 'glitch' by bms to gain the fire dmg at no spark cost.

89 culti: What is demon better at sage than? What is sage better at demon than? Are there seriously no times where a sage bm is better than a demon bm? You said a Demon does more damage? how and why? better skills? maybe show a comparison and analysis of the skills and show how each level 11 skill can be beneficial to a bm's role in different circumstances.

aps: is this good for pvp or pve? how much -int do you need to get to 5aps? is it possible to get to 5aps unsparked? what skills can be used to boost attack rate? How does attack rate increase with different skills and additional interval gear? Is this the 'only valid build' for a BM?


More to add?

Genies

Costs of gear and being cost effective and working on a budget.

Role in different pve and pvp situations and changing importance of skills. (eg cyclone heel is a very good pve skill, no so much pvp skill (why!) leap skills are very useful in pvp, yet not many BMs learn to use them effectively in pve (why?!) )

Endgame builds and the best ways to shard (gl with def level 2 gem mathematics )

Best ways to shard mid game builds

Planning ahead with the way you build

79 and 100 skills

most effective ways to gain exp and coin, considering that a lot of lower level bms wont have the funds to pay a sin to solo ff for them and eat hypers repeatedly.

More specific details like tricks in rb (bms need to set auras? oh manz!) / tt's / TW

Priorities on level 11 skills, what are the best? what are the most cost effective?


may think of more.

atm youre lacking a lot. particularly the 'why' aspect of things, aswell as the whole FAQ being very 'shallow' in content.

Kaste - Sanctuary

Steopie - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I will post constructively here seeing as you asked nicely for feedback on the other topic.

Starting from the top and working down:

You link to guides. Why arent they good enough? what do they lack? what will this FAQ give that they dont. The guides are very old. Are they outdated? Has BM play changed in many ways since those guides were 'published'?

BMs role? Are BMs good DD's? how do they compare to archers and sins? How do their Aoes compare? Is a BM always a 'DD'? A lot of the time a BM can be seen as a crowd control class. Why? Do you need any differences in builds to do so?

Stats: Is 3/2 the only way? Why not stat magic and vit? what are the benefits of statting each of the 4 attributes? How do different builds differ in their stat allocation? why cap at 200 dex? 200 dex with or without gear?

Gear: Why use HA? Why use all 4 weps? Which weps should be priority? Why are the calamaties , misties and annihilator of souls good gear? When should a BM stop and worry about working on their gear? What are good endgame goals?

Skills:
How does leveling certain skills up benefit a BM to their role in a party? Why are other skills seen as better than others? Earlier you said 'use all 4 weps' but now you claim sword and pole arent as needed? Why are those skills inferior?

DBB is also seen as good to 'glitch' by bms to gain the fire dmg at no spark cost.

89 culti: What is demon better at sage than? What is sage better at demon than? Are there seriously no times where a sage bm is better than a demon bm? You said a Demon does more damage? how and why? better skills? maybe show a comparison and analysis of the skills and show how each level 11 skill can be beneficial to a bm's role in different circumstances.

aps: is this good for pvp or pve? how much -int do you need to get to 5aps? is it possible to get to 5aps unsparked? what skills can be used to boost attack rate? How does attack rate increase with different skills and additional interval gear? Is this the 'only valid build' for a BM?


More to add?

Genies

Costs of gear and being cost effective and working on a budget.

Role in different pve and pvp situations and changing importance of skills. (eg cyclone heel is a very good pve skill, no so much pvp skill (why!) leap skills are very useful in pvp, yet not many BMs learn to use them effectively in pve (why?!) )

Endgame builds and the best ways to shard (gl with def level 2 gem mathematics )

Best ways to shard mid game builds

Planning ahead with the way you build

79 and 100 skills

most effective ways to gain exp and coin, considering that a lot of lower level bms wont have the funds to pay a sin to solo ff for them and eat hypers repeatedly.

More specific details like tricks in rb (bms need to set auras? oh manz!) / tt's / TW

Priorities on level 11 skills, what are the best? what are the most cost effective?


may think of more.

atm youre lacking a lot. particularly the 'why' aspect of things, aswell as the whole FAQ being very 'shallow' in content.

Thanks for a good reply ^^. Just a little thing, the guides are outdated, but they still contain valiable information and detailed skill/leveling guides and so on. Whereas a FAQ is rather a first start into the topic as does not have to be very detailed, compared to guides. However I will try to implement all of your feedback into the OP.

When that is done, I want more feedback .

Myralis - Sanctuary

Heads up here on the 89 culti part.
Rather list the advantages of both paths, cause sage isnt useless. You would want the damage reduction you got from spark if you plan on tanking a lot.
It depends on what the person wants to do, you cant say any path is useless...

Kaste - Sanctuary

Myralis - Sanctuary wrote: »

Heads up here on the 89 culti part.
Rather list the advantages of both paths, cause sage isnt useless. You would want the damage reduction you got from spark if you plan on tanking a lot.
It depends on what the person wants to do, you cant say any path is useless...

I will try to find something, but really, I do not feel like bringing up the discussion again. There are tons of threads to that topic, but I do not seem to find them. . .

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Myralis - Sanctuary wrote: »

Heads up here on the 89 culti part.
Rather list the advantages of both paths, cause sage isnt useless. You would want the damage reduction you got from spark if you plan on tanking a lot.
It depends on what the person wants to do, you cant say any path is useless...

sage is useless

aside from being able to go from 0 to 80 chi right after death over demons 0 to 30 sage has no advantage whatsoever

DPS: no cast time on cyclone, lower damage on CC DBB, and no GS CC = sage wil do almost 25% less damage than demon in the long run not to mention HF

PVP: you've played a bm to at least 99 right? demon has better stuns demon can kill alomst anyone over the dureation of 1 stun if played well, sage saves chi on roar, well zippide do dah that'll kill people

TW: sage's non balanced marrows make them archer food though the chi saveing is nice here so yes sage would have a point but to be honest with a roar that cant miss more usefull fissue slow and marrow/bell for the ability to stun more than once demon wins

AOE instances: demon HF+premacrit from GS > a fire DoT

Sparks: sage spark is overwriten by BB and they deal 25% less damage than demon so bloodpaint heal makes it useless. Oh and it looks like ****

so to say this again: sage is the wet **** the devs took as a joke to see if some missguided bm would actually be ignorant or just dumb enough to pick up and eat

Steopie - Heavens Tear

add stuff about setbonuses? particularly on the -int section.

attack and def level also?


if you feel you dont want to discuss things that have already been discussed in other threads, maybe give links to the threads? b:cute

Joshcja - Sanctuary

This is not an in depth guide, this is a FAQ of easy answers for commonly asked questions

what part of that is not gettign though your thick little skull?

Steopie - Heavens Tear

Joshcja - Sanctuary wrote: »

This is not an in depth guide, this is a FAQ of easy answers for commonly asked questions

what part of that is not gettign though your thick little skull?

As I explained in the other thread 'woo'. the only way to address the FAQ's is to give readers an 'appreciation' of the various builds and their benefits and drawbacks. Im not saying people need to write the Encyclopedia Britannica, but depth is needed to get the points and understanding across. Anyhow, youre an illiterate nonfactor and weve already established this. You should stop talking to me now.


Additions to your post that you have missed:

The non wep specific skills, passive skills and buffs. Particular emphasis on the importance and risks of marrows. b:victory

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Steopie - Heavens Tear wrote: »

As I explained in the other thread 'woo'. the only way to address the FAQ's is to give readers an 'appreciation' of the various builds and their benefits and drawbacks. Im not saying people need to write the Encyclopedia Britannica, but depth is needed to get the points and understanding across. Anyhow, youre an illiterate nonfactor and weve already established this. You should stop talking to me now.


Additions to your post that you have missed:

The non wep specific skills, passive skills and buffs. Particular emphasis on the importance and risks of marrows. b:victory

so an in depth guide is what you want, sucks to be you

Steopie - Heavens Tear

Joshcja - Sanctuary wrote: »

so an in depth guide is what you want, sucks to be you

I dont want nor need an in depth guide or an FAQ. Im just suggesting what would be best for the less informed members of these boards. How does it suck for me? o,.,o The things im not sure about are discussed on my guild forums, such as TW roles in squads that im not used to being in and the mathematics of maximizing survivability and damage output.

Im trying to be constructive and make suggestions towards building something that is concise, informative and addresses peoples questions and leaves them with an understanding of why to go about a certain course of action, rather than doing it cos 'somebody said so on the forums'.

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Steopie - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I dont want nor need an in depth guide or an FAQ. Im just suggesting what would be best for the less informed members of these boards. How does it suck for me? o,.,o The things im not sure about are discussed on my guild forums, such as TW roles in squads that im not used to being in and the mathematics of maximizing survivability and damage output.
Im trying to be constructive and make suggestions towards building something that is concise, informative and addresses peoples questions and leaves them with an understanding of why to go about a certain course of action, rather than doing it cos 'somebody said so on the forums'.

ya that will be in a FAQ when hell freezes over

your askigg for a full in depth guide, that defeats the purpose of a quick answer FAQ

Steopie - Heavens Tear

The text you highlighted red was me saying what I would like to discuss, not what I think should be in an FAQ. So yeah, I agree with you on that one. Read the sentence before and it should make itself clear to you. I was trying to imply that I personally have no need to read about stat points or leveling skills, proving that I dont 'want or need' an in depth guide.

Sakubatou - Sanctuary

Kaste - Sanctuary wrote: »

A useful guide:All Path BM

Wow, suddenly I'm in full support of this guide. b:laugh

And Josh,... don't poke the troll.




....
...
..
.


Oh! and Steopie,... don't poke the troll.

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Steopie - Heavens Tear wrote: »

The text you highlighted red was me saying what I would like to discuss, not what I think should be in an FAQ. So yeah, I agree with you on that one. Read the sentence before and it should make itself clear to you. I was trying to imply that I personally have no need to read about stat points or leveling skills, proving that I dont 'want or need' an in depth guide.

then dont read the FAQ? because its made for dumb people or new people not 103 bm's?

if you needed this guide then i would have to take you out back and shoot you putting you out of your misery

Eraldus - Sanctuary

I have a sage bm, and I yet have to see a Demon-biased-wh*** beat me. ijs...

ArchSaber - Sanctuary

I have a sage bm, and I yet have to see a Demon-biased-wh*** beat me. ijs...

Whats the BM name? I wanna meet you...b:laugh

EDIT: It's Lyufong.

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

Wow, suddenly I'm in full support of this guide. b:laugh

And Josh,... don't poke the troll.




....
...
..
.


Oh! and Steopie,... don't poke the troll.

dun you dare ruin my fun >.>

Kaste - Sanctuary

Wow a few days away and the trolling goes into a grade of madness.

Steopie's opinion is officialy invalid from now on. He/She obviosly does not get the point of a FAQ and just visits this thread for Trolling purposes.

Josh want to exchange stickies?

Saku supports me, yay!

Eraldus have fun @ PvE

Arch, Lyu who?

mkat

Hi, I had a question.

What shards are more preferred for bm end game? Thanks

Kaste - Sanctuary

mkat wrote: »

Hi, I had a question.

What shards are more preferred for bm end game? Thanks

-For weapon get garnet shards. The additional damage will be multiplied if you spark.
-Other options: Elemental (for HA penetration, not recommended)

-Armor depends on your playstyle, but in general I'd say Citrines. They increase your suvivability if you use the pure 4 weap DD build.
- Other options: Garnet, Sapphire

Joshcja - Sanctuary

Kaste - Sanctuary wrote: »

-For weapon get garnet shards. The additional damage will be multiplied if you spark.
-Other options: Elemental (for HA penetration, not recommended)

-Armor depends on your playstyle, but in general I'd say Citrines. They increase your suvivability if you use the pure 4 weap DD build.
- Other options: Garnet, Sapphire

DoD's/JoSD's

mkat

what about DoT? or is that not good for bm end game?

Kaste - Sanctuary

Joshcja - Sanctuary wrote: »

DoD's/JoSD's

Explain please.

Sakubatou - Sanctuary

Kaste - Sanctuary wrote: »

Explain please.

Once you have a nice hp base (from gear refines/stats) then Jade of Steady Defense (JoSD) or Diamond of Dragons (DoD) defense levels will benefit you more than more hp because you'll be losing less hp and at a slower rate.

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=698392

Basically JoSD > Vit stone> Citrine > DoD. That's rough and Asterelle's guide will explain the situations where vitality is better than defense levels or the other way around.

Kaste - Sanctuary

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

Once you have a nice hp base (from gear refines/stats) then Jade of Steady Defense (JoSD) or Diamond of Dragons (DoD) defense levels will benefit you more than more hp because you'll be losing less hp and at a slower rate.

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=698392

Basically JoSD > Vit stone> Citrine > DoD. That's rough and Asterelle's guide will explain the situations where vitality is better than defense levels or the other way around.

Thanks for making that clear. Will add it to OP.

TheDan - Sanctuary

It appears vit stones are more preferrable when fighting against enemies with r9 or 90 atk level. I'd just shard vit in tt99 gears, josd in g13 or higher to balance survivability.

mkat

Hi since no one is answering about DoTs, should I just assume they are useless for bms?

Michael - Harshlands

Attack sharding is a PvE only option for BM's as you would lack the survivability to get into range in group pvp if you were DoT sharded.

I do think that a discussion of all possible builds for BM's would be significantly too long for a FAQ, however a brief list of gears and set bonuses that give BM's an advantage would proabably be possible Acc%/Attack level/Def level/Interval etc

For example (just Accuracy Items, the following is the header followed by the 4 items in the category)

Accuracy Percent Items

Misty Ring Level 77: +104 pattack, +5 vit, + 50% acc, Cheap and easy to obtain good while getting better rings

Sign of Frost: Chaos Level 95 : +97 pattack +200 mdef +3% crit + 50% acc, Much better defence than misty refines well for pdef (+36 at +1, +802 at +10

Sky Cover Level 100: +114 Pattack, + 2 Attack level, + 3% crit + 50% accuracy, Slightly better DDing ring than SoF:C, however extremely difficult to obtain from public quest 3, Refines Extremely well for pdef (+42 at +1, +936 at +10) for those builds that require extra defence.

Ring of Trauma level 101: +210 pattack, + 5 Def level, + 3% crit, -6% channel + 50% acc, Strongest DD ring available to BM's, Expensive (requires 300k rep and alot of other items), Defence level covers the fact that the ring cannot be refined

Doing another list for each item that gives (Attack Level, Defence Level, Interval, or any set bonus that gives these that is attainable for a all weapon BM) would provide people with a basic overview of the ways you can build a BM, The myriad of different builds for a BM is what actually sets us apart from alot of classes as even with all weapons there is no 1 optimal path for a BM.

Just off the top of my head looking at unsharded (ie no DoT's or DoD's) 3.33/5aps, +100% acc options only, you can get 20 attack level, 10 defence levels, or 7 attack level, 25 defence level depending on your preference both of these use expensive gear pieces (such as G16 cube neck) that many players wouldnt use however you can get almost as much even with cheap pieces which is of course why a complete listing of all the possible options would help newer players to the class, to be honest many of the older players made suboptimal choices due to not having certain gear choices (rank9 for example) open to them at the time they made their characters.