Pole VS Sword Blademaster

Swords CAN get zerk:

Mirage Scimitar, TT99 green weapon
Berserk: has a chance to make the wielder go berserk, increasing physical attack and attack rate, along with damage taken

They can also get useful effects:

Firelotus: blade of the dragon TT90 gold weapon
Sacrificial strike: has a chance to inflinct double damage at the cost of losing 5% hp

Divine_Death - Dreamweaver wrote: »

When someone's running with 10% HP left, you are not going to pull out a bow and stay in range long enough to kill them before they get out of range and ticks. You'll need 3 or more hits from bow to do the same damage and you'll have to stay in range for each of those hits. Once Farstrike starts to channel, it's going to hit unless they manage to get very far away with leap. So if they happened to get out of range after 2 seconds, FS will hit them hard once, vs you chasing them with a bow after you fire one arrow.

There countles of cases in which FS is way better than a bow, there are also many cases in which a bow is the case better than FS.

Fists is kind of agreed today as the best weapon for normal attacks in 1v1. However, there are many cases in which all the other weapons are better for normal attacks in 1v1. However, saying that all the other weapons are better than fists in normal attacks in 1v1 is not correct.

BTW, you dont chase any one with a bow, thats wrong (I have never done it myself).

You pull them with the bow (and do damage along the way) or you hit them with the bow while they run away (you remain on same spot and your strategy is kill while they get from 0m to 20, the closer they get to 20 the harder your bow will hit) or you hit with the bow as they approach you or you hit with the bow an static target that you cannot get close to.

You cant compare yourself with an archer using the bow but it works for some situations.

the case you are mentioning is a particular case, I can make particular cases in which bow is better. The question is which cases are more important for you? Most likely your caseb:laugh

I have found Mage Bane to be extremely useful versus assasins especially as a finishing skill.

MSS is the best ultimate of the lot where I am concerned.

Atmos strike is not useful in PvE but in PvP it deals heavy damage.

Spirit chaser comes in handy in any situation where you need a little range.

in comparison I find none of the pole skills worth the need to level up or in my case even bother to choose.

Ignoring the skills and just focussing on the weapon neither swords or poles will outshine fist or axes.

Based on these I would give swords the nod.

As for the weapon choice as good a dual sword/ blade as you can get will do.

Kristoph - Lost City wrote: »

If you're tanking... you should be using fists anyway. Shadowless - build chi - Triple spark - build chi - repeat. You should have plenty of time to build enough chi for that if anyone's letting you tank, if you're not capable of that your party sucks anyway. Besides you shouldn't be getting hit that hard... PvE isn't that bad in this game. At lower levels sure but lowering a boss' attack half the time isn't going to save you and it's REALLY not worth the spirit. .

maybe it was just me but I assumed when I was referring to canceling aoe's and building chi you would be using fists...especially since the OP is axe/fist.

Its not about getting hit hard ourselves necessarily, but our HP pool is less then a Barbs. And the ability to reduce incoming damage can really come in handy. And protect party members that may not have elite gear. So, yes lowering a boss's attack is totally worth it. I know from experience. I use All 4 weapon paths.

Yulk - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I use all 4 weapons... well total lol. I have two types of BMs... because I want to keep my VIT
. I have yet to experience a "useless" skill or weapon. That mage bane is great against bosses / casters too, I don't see why its useless. Mage bane have their uses. At times, mage bane is better than Drake Bash when it comes to bosses that cast magic... Which are immune to stun b:cry. So for this char, I rather not use axes / hammers till, 100... Unless the devs change the skill slots b:surrender

really...name a boss that casts has a spell worth slowing and does not resist the channel lowering
or a time i would bother casting it rather than 2 spar/MSS/shadowless

aside from the narrow scenario mentioned above its a useless skill

Sword or Pole .. Sword or Pole.

If you only want to get one then endgame there is no arguement Imo

Go Pole.

Discounting all the skills the Pole path wins out for the simple fact of the Monarch Spear and its debuff b:dirty no Sword can come close.

I use all 4 weapons and the only skill I really use on the Sword path is MSS.
Like others have said MSS is situational and is more to protect the rest of the squad than anything else. Handy in Delta for those " oh **** BB's gone down " moments

Joshcja - Sanctuary wrote: »

really...name a boss that casts has a spell worth slowing and does not resist the channel lowering
or a time i would bother casting it rather than 2 spar/MSS/shadowless

aside from the narrow scenario mentioned above its a useless skill

Hercule trioc, Kashu, drake, Kirixx, Qingzi, The drum boss in TT1-1 and 1-2, Mori, I can go on, I encountered a LOT of bosses and I noticed a BM using a sword used it and one of thoses bosses was casting a lot slower. And beginning of 59 you get 2 sparks and 99 chi no? b:cute

Yulk - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Hercule trioc, Kashu, drake, Kirixx, Qingzi, The drum boss in TT1-1 and 1-2, Mori, I can go on, I encountered a LOT of bosses and I noticed a BM using a sword used it and one of thoses bosses was casting a lot slower. And beginning of 59 you get 2 sparks and 99 chi no? b:cute

-_-;

Drum's going to channel once every 3 swings. wtf good does it do you to have it channel slower if it's going to melee you in between? All those bosses melee and channel in between except for Toric. What does Mage Bane do? Boss goes hit, hit, hit, 2 seconds channel, instead of hit, hit, hit, 1 second channel? In then end, you are still going to get hit, just a fraction of a second later... and it lasts long enough for one channel. Wow, not a waste at all. The boss is going to punch you 3 times then zap you once. You using Mage Bane results in... you getting punched 3 times and zapped once.

Joshcja - Sanctuary wrote: »

only reliable if the spear is refined to +7 or morre seems soul shatter proc rate is related to refines +7 being the magic number (blame the archers and their math for that one)

Works fine on the Spear below +7 .. I have one and know the results first hand

MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »

I thought axes were the best in pve even in squading as they have better aoe skills.

axes are only good when you're hitting more than 1 mob at once = AOE. for single targets, like most bosses, there's no appeal in doing AOE. I mean... except heaven's flame which speeds up any kill but costs 2 sparks.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »

What about a Poleaxe?I was thinking of this for my weapon combo Axe,Spear and Fists.I might replace Spear with Poleaxe.

it quite the following:
if you use more weapon skills then normal attacks, get a slow weapon. (dual axes > polehammer)
if you use more normal attack than skills, get a faster weapon (polehammer > dual axes)

in practise the polehammer vs. dual axes comparison only applies to barbs as blademasters are allowed to use all 4 kinds of weapons and all of them deal better damage over time with normal attack compared to any axes/hammers. anyway damage over time on single targets is quite a synonym for fists and claws^^

MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »

I thought axes were the best in pve even in squading as they have better aoe skills.

What about a Poleaxe?I was thinking of this for my weapon combo Axe,Spear and Fists.I might replace Spear with Poleaxe.

Poleaxe is a axe/hammer path weapon... 0.o

Go Axe/fists...then in a few months decide what you want to do.

Like I said. Just do your Axe/Fist for now. Axes for multiple opponents, fists for single.

You will not have the spirit to do 3 weapons until later in the game.

ManofPower - Lost City wrote: »

Hey so far im a AXE/FIST BM i want to start a third path so far i've learn every BM skill and im trying to decide between pole and sword...

Post what you think i should do b:bye

If you are an Axe/Fist then your build should be able to use all 4 kind of weapons a BM can use as long you haven't added any stats into VIT.

Just keep addin' stat normally and choose the path you wanna master now and spend those coins and spirits. b:victory

AdvanceZero - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Not necessarily true.

I have 36 base vitality and I can use all weapons for my level.

I'm not sure 'bout endgame gear, but at leat till lvl 89, you need every stat on Str and Dex to wear current blacksmith weapon.

I know some TT and Legndary weapons have less requirement than blacksmith weeapons. So you could get some free stat from that to add into your Vit.

Kristoph - Lost City wrote: »

Not really... you can use tomes and other things to make up for the loss of stat points.


My BM is lv85 with 45 base vit, can wear Frost fists (168 dex req) and HH80 Axes (242 str req). It can't wear Frost Hammers (261 str req), but only barely... it has 255 str. And no I'm not counting the +str on frost fists here, it has 262 str with that. At lv90 I'll be able to wear GX and frost fists... at 95 I'll be able to wear Lunar claw and GX. It's not hard to get extra stat points.

This^^ +10