Question for experienced Blademasters

cameron16
cameron16 Posts: 14 Arc User
edited May 2015 in Blademaster
I recent got my cousin to start playing PWI that way I have someone to game with on here I was explaining all the classes to the best of my ability. But as far as Blademasters go I couldn't answer much aside from the biased rumors I've heard about them. He's really interested in the class but doesn't want to be a "Fail Class"

To the experienced Blademasters out there what can you say about the Blademasters? He really wants to go PVP and I don't know slim to nothing about bm's in pvp. Any advice would be greatly appreciated from yall. And I was telling him go all path BM I'm hoping I was right about that as well? Looking forward to hearing your responces.

No rude, negative, or ignorant comments are needed this is for informational purposes please respect that.
Post edited by cameron16 on

Comments

  • Slivaf - Dreamweaver
    Slivaf - Dreamweaver Posts: 2,106 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    i really wouldn't suggest bms as a class to pvp with, especially in rubbish gear.

    Even the one's who are in close to end game gears, are little to no threat to me on my seeker. (To be fair yes seekers are in HA gear which is bad to attack with physical attacks, but still, they (bms) really are quite squishy even in badass gear... most of the time if a bm is in rubbish gear he/she will be long dead before you even have time to land one measly attack, that tends to do rubbish damage to begin with.)

    The one's that are in end game gear... are quite annoying to kill, but they also can't kill my seeker all that well and my seeker isn't completely end game yet.

    The purify proc is still quite an annoying thing to deal with, not impossible but still difficult, bm's do have a decent way of combating it, but still the proc can erase everything a bm throws on the caster. (They take loads of chi to play.) The purify proc can erase both the debuffs a bm throws on a casters, as well as any normal stun. Though if you do throw stuns at a caster, its really best to either throw a blade hurl at them, and then debuff/stun, or just use dragon rising... paralyze (from nh update really helped.) them. rawr

    Though really I suggest you read TheDan's post about pvp and bm's while it is a bit outdated most of it is still quite true.

    His stats from there are pretty spot on.

    (Stars adjusted for rubbish gear /o\)

    Player difficulty - ☆☆☆☆☆
    Survivability - ☆
    Damage Output - ☆
    Supportive Control Skills - ☆☆☆☆
    Overall Mass PvP viability - ☆
    Overall 1v1 Viability - ☆☆

    Though really if your friend does go with it, i highly suggest to focus on magic resistance rings/belt/necklace. (refine them to +10ish, and the bm's survivability goes from a 1 star to about 2 (and half) stars.) - Then once you get those to +10ish go back to refiing the gear asap, then lastly the weapon, bm's aren't going to be doing damage much at all, so just focus on its survivability.
    Ah, Mistakes are so easily made. ~ laura resnick

    What kind of message are you sending when you insult my intelligence? ~ Me ~ 5/29/2015 (Yes it is possible someone said this before just no idea who/where.)
  • teikiatsu11
    teikiatsu11 Posts: 98 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Blademasters I'd have to say are one of, if not the most difficult class to play. It takes a lot of talent to use one effectively even in end-game armor you have to be talented to survive and get your kills.

    With that said BM's are also one of the most adaptable classes and at end-game can pose a serious threat if not dealt with quickly. We do use a lot of chi just to do about anything but if you manage your chi properly you won't have to worry much about it especially with the primal release giving us Star Smite. Our damage output lacks a lot compared to other classes and with r999 casters having Purify Spell they're incredibly hard to catch but I seem to manage against them (I do not have end-game armor btw), with LA I can handle them fairly well, HA is the biggest problem I have especially with my low damage output but I can still manage some kills mostly against other BM's and seekers, barbs on the other hand I have to pray for a lucky string of zerkscrits and hope it accomplishes something.

    A BM requires patience and practice. If you're easily frustrated in PvP it will make playing a BM hell but if you take your time and figure out how to counter your enemies attacks you'll do fine. If you plan to mostly be support your job should be easier just stun, debuff, purge should you have a weapon that can do so (and no venos nearby) and let your team handle the rest, to play in an offensive role it will take much more talent to learn how to properly survive, chain attacks and manage your chi.

    When it comes to gear it isn't easy to survive when you're undergeared, other classes can get away with having worse gear than an enemy but BM's will struggle a lot when outgeared, however it is not impossible and like I said a talented BM will survive well enough to get their attacks and stuns out, killing the enemy is another story but you can still support your team just fine.

    BM's have an incredibly large amount of different builds you can do but the most common you will find is all path so we can make full use of all of our abilities and personally I would highly recommend this build for the high crit rate and damage output. Plus it gives me an excuse to collect weapons. b:chuckle
  • Slivaf - Dreamweaver
    Slivaf - Dreamweaver Posts: 2,106 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    When it comes to gear it isn't easy to survive when you're undergeared, other classes can get away with having worse gear than an enemy but BM's will struggle a lot when outgeared, however it is not impossible and like I said a talented BM will survive well enough to get their attacks and stuns out, killing the enemy is another story but you can still support your team just fine.

    Absolutely agreed. - I have experienced pvp on every other class in similar gear/lesser gear, (tbh I haven't with Db's/Sb, but they are still quite new) and they are much easier to enjoy/actually feel like your actually doing something other than dying (while out geared)... though yes all classes have their drawbacks/are easy kill while undergeared, but bms do tend to be the most difficult to pull anything off with while their opponents outgear them.

    Hell I agree with all of what you wrote.
    Ah, Mistakes are so easily made. ~ laura resnick

    What kind of message are you sending when you insult my intelligence? ~ Me ~ 5/29/2015 (Yes it is possible someone said this before just no idea who/where.)
  • Bhavyy - Raging Tide
    Bhavyy - Raging Tide Posts: 1,083 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    New classes is always the way to go. DB
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  • Saethos - Raging Tide
    Saethos - Raging Tide Posts: 1,239 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Blademasters I'd have to say are one of, if not the most difficult class to play. It takes a lot of talent to use one effectively even in end-game armor you have to be talented to survive and get your kills.

    With that said BM's are also one of the most adaptable classes and at end-game can pose a serious threat if not dealt with quickly. We do use a lot of chi just to do about anything but if you manage your chi properly you won't have to worry much about it especially with the primal release giving us Star Smite. Our damage output lacks a lot compared to other classes and with r999 casters having Purify Spell they're incredibly hard to catch but I seem to manage against them (I do not have end-game armor btw), with LA I can handle them fairly well, HA is the biggest problem I have especially with my low damage output but I can still manage some kills mostly against other BM's and seekers, barbs on the other hand I have to pray for a lucky string of zerkscrits and hope it accomplishes something.

    That being said, if you're playing the class to get kills you've rolled the wrong class. Yes, BMs can get kills, yes, our damage output is noticeable because of zerk, but the zerk argument goes for seekers, Sins, and now DB's that can out damage us in equal gear easily enough. I get a fair few kills in TW and NW but more often than not I find myself getting the assist rather than the kill, which personally I love, but if you don't like that the class is not for you.
    A BM requires patience and practice. If you're easily frustrated in PvP it will make playing a BM hell but if you take your time and figure out how to counter your enemies attacks you'll do fine. If you plan to mostly be support your job should be easier just stun, debuff, purge should you have a weapon that can do so (and no venos nearby) and let your team handle the rest, to play in an offensive role it will take much more talent to learn how to properly survive, chain attacks and manage your chi.

    Good chi management is important! One of the best things about being a BM is that when you have full chi and the ability to keep said chi high then you are an absolute nightmare! Furthermore should you have a weapon that can purge you can use Army Crusher on groups. The skill has a chance to proc on every target, not on every cast, so should you use it in a large group you have a good to fair chance of purging at least 1 person in the group and that's always a joy.
    When it comes to gear it isn't easy to survive when you're undergeared, other classes can get away with having worse gear than an enemy but BM's will struggle a lot when outgeared, however it is not impossible and like I said a talented BM will survive well enough to get their attacks and stuns out, killing the enemy is another story but you can still support your team just fine.
    What Silvaf said.
    BM's have an incredibly large amount of different builds you can do but the most common you will find is all path so we can make full use of all of our abilities and personally I would highly recommend this build for the high crit rate and damage output. Plus it gives me an excuse to collect weapons. b:chuckle

    Even if you want to exclusively use axes, you will need dexterity anyway. I don't use fists because I'm too cheap to want to drop coin on a decent pair and instead just use my r9r2 axes for all my DD needs. This said, I still could wear fists because I have the dexterity to do so. Remember, every dexterity is accuracy and every 20 is crit. If you sit yourself at the base 60 dex required for axes, consider AA having 12 dex on their t3 cape, 45 dex on their emperor tome, and the caster has at least 60 dex due to the 3 base and the caster officially has the same dex as you. And of course you have archers, DB's, seekers, and sins that all have more dex than you anyway, you will be missing a LOT even if you have 2 accuracy rings. You also will be missing a fair bit of crit. One of the best BMs I know has more dex than me (Granted he has Emperor, I do not...) and his crit is 50% base.

    Knowing this should you want to drp money for a good pair of fists, it would probably be worth it, personally I don't care to use fists at all because I'm just too cheap.
    It is said that apple pie is best served Al La Mode, so if you are the pie, consider me your ice cream.
  • Evryn - Morai
    Evryn - Morai Posts: 1,437 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    cameron16 wrote: »
    To the experienced Blademasters out there what can you say about the Blademasters? He really wants to go PVP and I don't know slim to nothing about bm's in pvp.

    Blademasters are a versatile and surprisingly resilient class, but expensive to ready for PvP. Blademasters have 4 weapon types which they have skills for, and in PvP you'll most likely want to use them all:
    - Swords are great for quick chi gaining, and the sword skills are defensively oriented, especially vs casters.
    - Polearms have some reach, and especially the sage ranged polearm skill (farstrike) hits hard against enemies trying to run away.
    - Axes are mainly for putting the hurt on others, and include some nice AOEs (or one nice AOE if you merge them into the primal skill). BM R9 weapon is dual axes with GoF.
    - Fists are mainly used in PvE situations for APS damagedealing. With enough APS they can also be used as a cheap chi builder. Not so great for PvP... There are no primal fist skills, but the Bolt of Thyseus aoe skill hits very hard (base damage x2 instead of weapon damage).

    So instead of one weapon, you'll have to get 4 of them refined.

    BMs are tanky, but their damage output is generally lower then say, a sin or seeker. Unless you plan on not going multipath, you'll want to skill 200 or so dex to be able to use G16+ fists (great for aps farming and leveling, not so great for pvp). This means you'll end up with about 400 str at early endgame. Rebirth and stat bonuses from war avatars should help getting your str up for extra damage, but it won't be much.

    What BM's excel at is stunning people, and they have some of the strongest debuffs in the game. They shine in mass pvp support - locking down an important target or debuffing the living **** out of something tanky. As of Horizons they also got moderate ranged capabilities, provided you got a good polearm and sword.

    In a nutshell - BMs are frontline support, not direct DD. They're in a way like clerics, 'xept they amplify the hurt on the enemy rather then heal the friendlies. As a result they're also not that great for soloing, unless you get good war avatars and go 5 APS... Then TT becomes rather easy (BMs get the high bonus from the war avatars, so a leveled destroyer/battle S or rebirthed A card can bring their APS capabilities close to that of APS sins, without the squishyness).
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  • Saethos - Raging Tide
    Saethos - Raging Tide Posts: 1,239 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    As a result they're also not that great for soloing, unless you get good war avatars and go 5 APS... Then TT becomes rather easy (BMs get the high bonus from the war avatars, so a leveled destroyer/battle S or rebirthed A card can bring their APS capabilities close to that of APS sins, without the squishyness).

    I definitely disagree with this. I haven't used fists since the days of Deicides being all that and a bag of chips, but I've been able to pretty steadily solo pretty much everything. My sin can still solo faster, but because of a gear gap my BM has always been better. With my sin having t3+7 weapon and basic APS gear and my BM shuffling between a t3+7 sword and +8 r9r2 axes (Hopefully +10 soon!) to keep chi and damage up I've been able to solo any TT thrown at me.

    Granted this makes 3-3 damn easy because of the r9r2 armor, but once upon a time I was not r9r2 and I still managed to solo TT3-3 without too much stress. Bosses like Steel in 3-3 can really suck to solo, but if you watch for the HP debuff you can spark it off and when he goes APS mode if you can't take the hits, use leap back and he'll use magic on you. Switch to a sword and start using Star Smite, Drake's Ray, and Spirit Chaser regularly until his APS is gone then go back in close and use your primary weapon once again.

    I've found BM to be the second best for soloing because of our versatility and well rounded stats. In equal gear my sin is indeed a LOT faster but the struggle is definitely harder, BM glides through, it just takes more time. Personally I'd rather coast down a smooth road than speed down a bumpy path. Each boss has tricks and you can take advantage of that, being a BM and soloing just means you need to put in a little more thought. More bosses in TT have text-cues as well, Instead of just sparking willy nilly I can even avoid purge on GBA by timing it with his speech.

    BM is the jack of all trades master of none. We're very good at soloing just about anything, getting BP is easy especially if you have your own sin and more often than not BP is all you need.
    It is said that apple pie is best served Al La Mode, so if you are the pie, consider me your ice cream.