TheDan's End Game Blademaster PvP Guide

Zanryu - Lothranis

In depth Genie setups:

I will be listing different genie builds, the different skills you should carry for certain situations, and how to use them against certain classes. I'll also be listing which genies are best suited to dealing with certain classes.

There are three general genie build types:

Vit/Mag:

100 Magic with the rest of your points invested in Vitality.

This genie offers incredible skill use due to the sheer amount of genie energy and energy recovery. This is the best type for group PvP, though it has viability in 1v1 fights as well. This genie has two sub-types, genies with Faith and those without.

Both types of genies are best used in group PvP, with Faith genies being your best option against Assassins and Clerics in 1v1. There's not really any opponent you "can't" fight with this type of genie.

A regular Vit/Mag genie functions more or less the same as a Faith genie, only they lack the ability to run Faith and Balance. They do have access to Cloud Eruption and Expel though, as well as the other skills a Faith genie can use, so they're still a very solid option.

Str:

50 Magic with the rest of your points invested in Strength.

This genie excels in 1v1 fights.

It is best used against Seekers, Barbarians, and Archers. Be wary of classes that have access to strong crowd control, due to lacking a defensive genie you become susceptible to them should they break or resist your stunlock. You should never use this type of genie against an Assassin or Psychic. Clerics and other Blademasters can also be threatening if they run a genie that can break your stuns or debuffs, though you can ruin another Blademaster's lock by chi draining them.

Dex:

50 Magic with the rest of your points invested in Dexterity.

This genie is mainly for 1v1 fights against Psychics and occasionally other Blademasters. Faith genies are viable against Psychic, however outside of Faith they have no reliable stunbreak. Most Psychics will camp White Voodoo until they get a good stun in, which is when they switch to Black Voodoo and go on the offensive. Without a way to break the stuns reliably and counter attack they'll swap back to White Voodoo when they can no longer CC you. A Dex genie's Badge of Courage is most likely to allow you to catch them in Black Voodoo and go for a kill.

Genie Build Breakdowns

Vit/Mag (Faith) Genie

Base genie skills:

Faith
Absolute Domain
Windshield
Will Surge
Fortify

Group PvP -

Assuming you're 105, a Faith genie is definitely best for group PvP. I believe the best basic setup is Faith, Absolute Domain, Fortify, Wind Shield, and Will Surge. The last two skills can be interchanged depending on what it is you need, skills that can take these slots are Whirlwind, Holy Path, Balance, Tree of Protection, and in some cases Heart of Steel, Extreme Poison or Tangling Mire.*


A general group PvP genie should look similar to this:

Faith
Absolute Domain
Windshield
Fortify
Whirlwind
Will Surge
Holy Path

This setup allows you to be prepared for most situations without any need to change out skills, it's especially useful in NW and TW. It's also good in most group PvP situations, however against certain enemy team setups you can replace Holy Path and Whirlwind for different skills.

This comes down to player judgement, due to the amount of variables in group PvP.

1v1-

Vit/Mag (Faith) Genie

For 1v1 PvP the story is a little different. It's much harder to have overall coverage, especially when you aren't using a 91+ genie. Base genie skills are the same as the group PvP build, with the last two skill slots being determined by who you're fighting. I'll only be listing possible variations for the last two skill slots unless specifically stated otherwise to keep this part of the guide simple.

Assassin:

There aren't many effective options with a Faith genie to be honest. Adrenaline Surge looks appealing but 80 energy to prevent a status that can be applied every 13-15 seconds is a very bad deal. Will Surge will prevent the far deadlier status, as well as waste over a spark in the process since most Sins won't seal you until after they've slept you. ToP is also quite costly, and though it can be helpful it requires excellent timing to be truly effective.

Whirlwind: This skill is invaluable when combating Assassins. Once Tidal Protection is off and you're out of their lock they WILL kite you. This allows you to stall them for that one second you need to catch up and begin your lock. It's great once you've forced their Expel, you can stall them for that one second and catch them with Roar, and due to their lack of genie energy as long as your lock is solid they'll go down.


Extreme Poison: An extra 20% damage is a great boost, and it can give you the extra power needed to get through an Assassin's charm. I choose this over Tangling Mire due to a shorter cooldown, as well has being more effective thanks to the indirect nerf Tangling Mire got from the New Horizons update. Only to be used when Tidal Protection is cooling down and you believe you can get the kill.

Cleric:

There are a fair amount of options when it comes to genie skills for fighting Clerics, though Heart of Steel is one I'd consider irreplaceable. Because Clerics have no access to Stuns, it is best to always replace Fortify for fights against them. The last slot can go to a handful of skills, depending on how you prefer to deal with Clerics. You could remove Will Surge and add add an extra skill, though it makes SoG a little more troublesome to deal with as you can't combo Will of the Bodhisattva and Will Surge.


Balance:To be used when Magic Marrow expires from being Cleric locked, you should use Balance when the Cleric is about to attack through their sleep. It'll give you a shield that will absorb at least one hit, enough to get your Magic Marrow back up.

Whirlwind: Used when your opponent activates Fortify or there may be a gap in your lock, you can combine this with Smack to psuedo-stun the Cleric and continue your lock or just stop them for a second in order to catch up and begin your lock. This CAN activate Purify Spell, so it isn't something to depend on.

Heart of Steel: The ability to resist all but two of the Cleric's attacks for only 80 energy is a major asset. Full resistance to the most threatening of the Cleric's arsenal combined with a Bladermaster's naturally high defenses makes this a must have skill when fighting Clerics.

Adrenaline Surge: Very useful against Clerics, this can prevent the Cleric from setting up a full combo on you. When used correctly this will allow you to break the Cleric's lock and counter attack, or at the very least refresh your Magic Marrow. Once the Cleric's lock has begun it becomes fairly predictable, but smarter Clerics will change up how they apply their lock once they notice you're running Adrenaline Surge. This skill is arguably better than Whirlwind due to its ability to soft counter a Cleric's lock and the fact that it can't activate their Purify Spell.

Tree of Protection: Can be used to negate a portion of the Cleric's Arrays, though it will usually only remove about half of a max stack. It's put my charm in a good spot on many occasions, though it has a high energy cost and can't be used haphazardly. If misused it's essentially wasted so be cautious when bringing this into a fight against a Cleric.



*The reason Balance is not a base skill that all genies should have is because its use is limited. It's best used immediately after being purged or once Magic Marrow has worn off while fighting a Cleric. During group PvP Absolute Domain is the better option after a purge, as Balance's shield won't help much against the incoming damage you'll take once you've been called out as a purged target. It's also very likely you won't have the genie energy if you've been using it to support your team or mitigate damage throughout the fight. While you could run balance, I don't recommend it due to its high energy cost and cooldown. Once I've tested it more I may revisit this, but so far it's served very little purpose in group PvP for me.


I redid the old guide, though I have it saved in case this one isn't as good.

I figured I should post it, rather than just edit my other post, which I'll go delete. Huehuehue

Viktorian - Archosaur

zan how do u feel about Alpha Male while in Cata squads?

Zanryu - Lothranis

Honestly I wouldn't bother with it, it's a waste of energy. The aggro effect won't do anything in TW and a one second physical damage reflect is pretty worthless when you already have Bramble, even if Alpha Male's is 40%.

If you wanted a longer reflect you'd need a Strength genie, which has no place in TW anyway.

mkat

Here is my Faith Genie

Holy Path
Heart of Steel
Absolute Domain
Wind Shield
Faith
Whirlwind
Will Surge
Fortify

I would like to try balance, would u guys rate that higher then Heart of steel? There was just to many times I trolled people with that. I decided to try running with out tangling mire, but wanting to somehow put it back, not sure what to replace it with. Will surge is just to valuable.

@ Dan how is 90vit/100mag working with the Faith genie, I see many with 100vit/90mag. I decided to try 110vit/80mag to see how it went, The high vit is nice allowing me to combo skills but the low mag is not so good.

Viktorian - Archosaur

mkat wrote: »

Here is my Faith Genie

Holy Path
Heart of Steel
Absolute Domain
Wind Shield
Faith
Whirlwind
Will Surge
Fortify

I would like to try balance, would u guys rate that higher then Heart of steel? There was just to many times I trolled people with that. I decided to try running with out tangling mire, but wanting to somehow put it back, not sure what to replace it with. Will surge is just to valuable.

@ Dan how is 90vit/100mag working with the Faith genie, I see many with 100vit/90mag. I decided to try 110vit/80mag to see how it went, The high vit is nice allowing me to combo skills but the low mag is not so good.

how do u have 9 skills active???

Sel_Darkmore - Dreamweaver

And i thought Dan had godmode genie O.O lmao

my question is with a 100/vit Mag genie does windshield even help much with the lack of dex? I mean first time i made the Dex genie and i was loving it vs sins but when came across archers /Seekers i was missing my HoS so i went and put that back on .

mkat

Viktorian - Archosaur wrote: »

how do u have 9 skills active???

Not sure where you see 9 but I only posted 8

1 Holy Path
2 Heart of Steel
3 Absolute Domain
4 Wind Shield
5 Faith
6 Whirlwind
7 Will Surge
8 Fortify

Maybe you misunderstood my post, but I meant I was thinking to replace HoS with Balance, and what to replace to put tangling mire back. Sorry if my first post was confusing.


@ Sel_Dakrmore I would say yes it does help, if you have extra genie slots and gear to back it up. The reason I put it on though was I didnt like when I was getting ganked and my genie was low on energy and I didnt have any defensive skill to use. Try to think of your genie with High/Med/Low energy. I wanted to be able to do defensive stuff at all points of my genies energy. If I didnt have 8 slots I would probably use Heart of steel over Windshield.

Viktorian - Archosaur

mkat wrote: »

Not sure where you see 9 but I only posted 8

1 Holy Path
2 Heart of Steel
3 Absolute Domain
4 Wind Shield
5 Faith
6 Whirlwind
7 Will Surge
8 Fortify

Maybe you misunderstood my post, but I meant I was thinking to replace HoS with Balance, and what to replace to put tangling mire back. Sorry if my first post was confusing.

i thik i counted whirlwind twiceb:shutup

Sel_Darkmore - Dreamweaver

Just wanted to say Tyvm for all the responses and tips and infos + advice. I know i proly been asking alot but since NH i have a renewed drive to keep working my bm . And really getting back into the role. I doubt i ever have Vit + stones in my gear or god nows how long it will take me to + 10 everything but i trying my best to make up for the lack of it all by other means.

Viktorian - Archosaur

at least u got rrr9 and dont have to start from scratch like meb:cry

TheDan - Sanctuary

mkat wrote: »

Here is my Faith Genie

Holy Path
Heart of Steel
Absolute Domain
Wind Shield
Faith
Whirlwind
Will Surge
Fortify

I would like to try balance, would u guys rate that higher then Heart of steel? There was just to many times I trolled people with that. I decided to try running with out tangling mire, but wanting to somehow put it back, not sure what to replace it with. Will surge is just to valuable.

@ Dan how is 90vit/100mag working with the Faith genie, I see many with 100vit/90mag. I decided to try 110vit/80mag to see how it went, The high vit is nice allowing me to combo skills but the low mag is not so good.

This is my most recent PvP video featuring my genie set up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp9MNhZxJkk&list=UUO0eVrWKPE0PSRzN0Y07P5Q

And yes balance is way better than heart of steel. It gives a 20k magic defense shield when completely purged and unbuffed, and 6 second immunity to stun and costs less energy than if you were to use wind shield 62 + 55 = 117 energy on a fortify IG to get out of a tough situation, can use IG directly after balance for only 108 energy. Honestly metal attacks shouldn't hurt a magic marrowed BM, it's only when a BM is purged would it hurt, which in that case Balance would protect the BM from all magic skills, and give the BM 6 seconds to get out of stun-lock and time to IG or leap out.

There isn't much difference between a 90 vit / 100 magic genie and a 100 vit / 90 magic genie. A 90 vit / 100 magic genie will have a 5% decrease in maximum energy for a 6.67% increase in energy recovery. The difference is almost un-noticeable TBH. Faith and balance both have a 60 second cool-down, a 3.00 energy recovery genie re-gens 160 energy in 53.33 seconds, whereas a 2.80 energy genie takes 57.14 seconds to re-gen which again is still under-neath the 60 second cool-down period.

The issue with a 110 vit / 80 magic genie is that you're dropping your regeneration rate from 3.00 to 2.60 is a 15.4% decrease in energy recovery for a meager 10.5% increase in maximum energy from 190 to 210. If you're very tanky and alive for long periods of time, this would hurt you in the long run, if you're not very tanky and don't have much support, the Vit is better in the short run. Magic is ultimately better if you're able to survive for long periods of time without relying solely on the genie to survive.

Sel_Darkmore - Dreamweaver

K i tried a test run with Faith and Balance

1 i know i dont have the right genie for them skill and 2 not use to using them took more deaths then normal today so i think best i wait till i get 105 and a 91+ genie and for now stick to what i use too.

Yeah i know Zan i didnt heed my own advice about not going into something with something that i not use too lol.