Blademasters?

The following is all my opinion and please do not feel you have to follow it to the letter.

Well let me start out by saying there are numerous threads about every build of BM, and I disagree with a great many of them. That being said I am a lvl 64 fist BM and loving it. Now a few things about fist BMs, we are put down by almost every otehr type of BM as being weak and insignificant. To a point they are somewhat right, in PvP we are not always as good as some people make us out to be. If a caster of equal or higher lvl hits us we are almost always toast, but we can still hold our own against some others, btu re just don't have the raw damage generally required for PvP.

Now that that is out of the way, on to the awesome sauce fist BMs in PvE! First off I suggest little or no vit in your build, it is near useless. All vit really gives you is minor defense, 15 hp per point, so unless you pump ALOT of vit, ti is nearly worthless. For a pure PvE fist BM I suggest a 5:5 Str:Dex every two lvls build, or more str when required for heavy armor, but never drop below 4 points of dex ever two lvls unless you need to stretch a little for your heavy armor, but always try and remember to go back and grab those dex again. Dex is our saving grace, every 20 points gets us a crit %, and when you are at my lvl, mobs will only hit you with physical attacks about 1/4 of the time or less. The downside to this though is before 39, you don't have your skill (Shadowless Kick) that interupts mob's spell casting, so you WILL take that damage, and most likely it will hurt, but stick through it, carry lots of pots, and use Diamond sutra as much as possible.

As for skills you should and shouldn't lvl. I say to hell with Tiger Maw, Stream Strike, Aeolian Blade, and Vaccous Palm. These skills are completely worthless for one reason or another, and ultimately a waste of valuable spirit, only get these to lvl 1 so you can move on. Now, Roar of the pride is alright, being an AoE stun, but I suggest lvl 1 unless you have ALOT of free spirit. Skills I think you should ASAP are: Aura of the Golden Bell, Draw Blood, Shadowless Kick, Cyclone Heel (your lvl 49 AoE), and Fist Mastery. Your lvl 59 AoE is a secondary skill to lvl up as it does take two sparks to cast and is a straight line AoE. Diamond Sutra now though is your saviour, and what allows me to solo with minimal charm and pot usage. It is really up to you whether you lvl this much if at all, but if you need the spirit elsewhere, leave this at lvl 4-5 until you have spare spirit.

I'm in the same boat as the other guy, since I'm brand new to the game (as in, literally made my usual characters last night and got my blademaster to 3). I'm definitely planning on using heavy armor on him, and I was wondering if you had any suggestions on stat distribution for either dual swords or dual blades. I don't really know the difference between the two (since some games have blades as daggers, others are katanas and such) but I usually play a "swordsman"-style character as my main. I'm not overly concerned about being the best damage-dealer, best tank, whatever. I just like trying to be a damage dealer that hits a little more frequently than normal, preferring consistant damage as opposed to big hits that miss quite a bit. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

I'll try to put all the Basic points i've learned and read and accumulated here. First for weapon choice;
In general Axes do the most PvE dmg and at later PvE they have the best AoE solo grinding capabilities.
Swords hit for less but crit and hit more, in general still a little less PvE output, but a little more PvP usefulness then Axe.
Polearm i'm not sure about, but seem to be the weapon of choice for more tank style BM.
Fist has the worst dmg output but highest crit & hit potential, still overall lower then both Axe & Sword, but the skills have the most usefulness in PvP.

For Armor, in general you want to wear Heavy armor, since being up close forces most mobs to do largely physical attacks, but still be capable of putting on Light armor for purely magical enemies. To do this, make sure at least 2.5 out of every 5 points goes to Str, and 1 out of every 5 points goes to Dex. (if you don't care at all about 1 type of armor or the other, Heavy is 2.5 Str & 0.5 Dex per level, Light is 1 Str & 1 Dex per level requirement). You might need more Str or Dex based on your weapon choice however.

Spirit Point spending is harsh on BMs. I cant speak for most classes but i play a Veno also and my Spirit budget doesnt seem at tight on that class as it does on my BM. Someone pointed out not to spend anything on Tiger Maw & the like (the early skills). From a late in game point of view thats right, but unless you're prepared to have no attack skill at all before 20, you need to spend some until the later skills are available. All in all, if you look at later game skills costing 120k (in the 70s) or more for 1 level, the amount you might have used early on is insignifigant in terms of loss. But stop levelling them and drop em as soon as better skills are available, here are the important ones;

Your Weapon Specialty of Choice - Choose 1 at lvl 29 & Max it out.
Stream Strike - ONLY IF YOU MIGHT TANK - BMs only high threat builder
Aeolian Blade - (contrary to above poster) Awesome skill!!! this is your 50% stun & great damage - Max ASAP
Roar of the Pride - Only other stun (that doesnt cost a spark), close to 100% and AoE but costs chi & no dmg. Still Max ASAP
Alter Marrows, Physical & Magical - Max both ASAP
Aura of the Golden Bell - Max ASAP
Diamond Sutra - Only Self Heal to keep grinding & save alot of money on Pots/Charms - Max ASAP
Drake's Ray - Only Ranged attack to pull or other reason - Max out
Cloud Sprint - Fast getaway or Fast move in to attack - Max out
Leap Forward & Leap Back - ONLY IF YOU PVP - these are great in PvP, worthless in PvE for the most part.

It took me till about level 73 to max all those out (i dont PvP so i didnt do the Leaps). Notice most of those arent even your damage dealing skills, but are all alot more useful then damage dealing skills. After all those are done can you start putting points into your damage output skills of choice, ussually in your weapon choice tree. I also Maxed Ocean's Edge, i like its slow effect and 1v1 dmg to alternate with Aeolian Blade if i need to kill something fast.

Well i think that covers alot of the requested information, take it or leave it as you choose.