Most of the BladeMaster skills don't make sense

[PayneX]

The balance between skills in this game is absurd. Most of the skills for the BladeMaster don't make any sense.

I got like 7 stuns and only one skill that uses stun (Take Flight with 24 sec cooldown). Most of the stuns i just sit and look at the enemy. (then i hit the stunned enemy with normal attacks which make me cringe, because it's such a wasted opportunity, to only have a 24 second cooldown skill that takes advantage of those situations)

On airborn targets i can choose between Crash 645-790 dmg or Ascend 1575-1928 dmg.  Why would anyone ever use Crash if it has so much lower damage?

When i knockdown an enemy sometimes i use Stomp (which does 71-84 dmg and makes me cringe because a normal attack does 223-272 dmg). Seriously what the hell is wrong with that stomp damage?

There are skills like Stomp that make 71-89 dmg and there are skills like Five Point Strike that make 4059-4971 dmg. What kind of mathematician designed this game? It makes no sense.

Don't even get me started on Flock of Blades, the skill that actually made me choose this class only to find out it's broken and it isn't even a stance. It has 1 min cooldown and it does nothing else then waste it all in 1 hit for basically the damage of a normal hit. Where the hell is the 5 blade in the ground lightning pentagram or consecutive throwing one blade at a time in the enemy? All i heard is that this game has a billion updates until it catches up to a version where this skill was removed and bla bla bla, basically nobody knows because nobody understands korean.

 

 

[Kutsuu]

DPS during BM ground combos (during stuns/dazes) is done in draw stance with Honed Slash. If you are low on focus, then Breeze with 4 points is used to recover focus quickly so you can get back to DPSing. Ground combos are our main source of punishing an early tab escape - you can 70-0 people if done correctly. 100-0 if using the AOE version of flock of blades. 

 

Crash is an AOE knockdown. You use it in situations where you want an AOE knockdown. It can be awesome in PVE, and useful against summoners in PVP.

 

Stomp itself is kinda useless - you can morph it to divebomb, or you can do draw stance DPS during knockdowns (in PVE). Knockdowns in PVP are generally used to stall, bait escapes, etc - you should be careful not to DPS while they are knocked down unless their ground counter is on CD. 

 

Flock of blades is extremely useful! The left side of the tree is generally used in PVP against Destroyers, BDs, and Summoners (usually not KFM/FM) in order to break out of grapples. Also 2 points in the left side of the tree for Assassins to break them out of stealth. The right side of the tree for HUGE burst damage. Also, X while in flock of blades is extremely powerful against ranged attacks. 

 

Overall, it's going to be highly beneficial to you if you accept that you haven't had enough time to learn everything about the game. Rather than coming to conclusions like you have, it's better to ask or research first. All you are doing is limiting your ability to learn and improve. 

[fatalystic]

Don't take me as an authority on BM skills, because I'm only around Lv35 atm.

 

- BM has a lot of stuns, but you generally won't be using most of them in PvE. It's mainly for PvP I believe. I agree that the long cooldown of Take Flight is kind of annoying since it's the only thing that can take advantage of stuns, apart from the stun caused by a kick to a blocking enemy which Breeze can capitalise on.

 

- Adding a couple points into Crash drops its cost from 3 to 2, making it a little cheaper than Ascend. It can also supposedly be specced to mob(?).

 

- Stomp is absolute crap, but it recovers focus. If you want better damage, spec it into Divebomb which costs 2 focus and does over 200 times more damage and can be spammed if the description isn't lying to me.

 

- Flock of Blades is actually sort of a stance. It changes all the skills in the lower row at the bottom of your screen, and Whirling Scourge (V) is actually pretty powerful. But what you generally want is to specifically spec Flock of Blades into Blade Call, which is essentially a nuke of sorts (20x AoE damage after 5 sec delay).

[PayneX]

Tks for making sense of my ramble ..i couldn't figure out why some skills are so powerfull and others a complete waste. A few numbers changed could make all skills so much viable then only hitting with my strongest skill.

[Hanadeus]

Stomp for interrupt their attack and stun them don't use it normally, yes flight 24sec sucks

[Ghobe]

9 hours ago, PayneX said:

I got like 7 stuns and only one skill that uses stun (Take Flight with 24 sec cooldown). Most of the stuns i just sit and look at the enemy.

Honed Slash deals bonus damage to stunned, dazed, and knocked down enemies(~29% more damage).

 

9 hours ago, PayneX said:

On airborn targets i can choose between Crash 645-790 dmg or Ascend 1575-1928 dmg.  Why would anyone ever use Crash if it has so much lower damage?

Crash is an AoE. And when you have the Hongmoon skill unlocked, it will send other targets hit airborne, allowing you to chain it repeatedly(as long as you have the focus).

 

9 hours ago, PayneX said:

When i knockdown an enemy sometimes i use Stomp (which does 71-84 dmg and makes me cringe because a normal attack does 223-272 dmg). Seriously what the hell is wrong with that stomp damage?

Stomp is used for regen. If you haven't noticed, skills that recover focus generally don't do a lot of damage.  Stomp is just extreme, but so is the recovery. You can pull this off multiple times on a downed enemy. If you want damage, spec it into divebomb which changes it from a low damage recovery skill, to a medium damage defense piercing AoE.

 

9 hours ago, PayneX said:

Don't even get me started on Flock of Blades, the skill that actually made me choose this class only to find out it's broken and it isn't even a stance. It has 1 min cooldown and it does nothing else then waste it all in 1 hit for basically the damage of a normal hit.

The basic form of Flock of Blades is a utility skill. Namely for instantly knocking an opponent out of stealth.

 

9 hours ago, PayneX said:

Where the hell is the 5 blade in the ground lightning pentagram or consecutive throwing one blade at a time in the enemy?

This is one of the hongmoon skill versions of lightning draw(tier 5 form 2).

 

2 hours ago, Hanadeus said:

Stomp for interrupt their attack and stun them don't use it normally, yes flight 24sec sucks

You're mistaking stomp for boot.

[Snowbunny]

In addition what Ghobe said.... dam he pointed almost everything >.>

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Most of the stuns i just sit and look at the enemy.

Honed slash is ur main dmg and does extra dmg to stunned target. Also bosses take couple of same type cc

If you use that normal RB stab your doing it wrong

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Why would anyone ever use Crash

PvP. Most scenarios vs pet class you might wanna use crash. Also 3v3

 

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Stomp

Stomp for regen and once again pvp. You won't attack knockdown target in pvp normal way.

Stomp is fast and unexpected and regen

 

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Stomp that make 71-89 dmg and there are skills like Five Point Strike that make 4059-4971 dmg. What kind of mathematician designed this game? It makes no sense.

What is point of this? All men are not born equal and neither are skills the same

I cannot see anythin to argue i mean dafuk rly o.O

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Flock of Blades, the skill that actually made me choose this class only to find out it's broken and it isn't even a stance.

Flock of blades is 10sec duration 1min cd stance and it unlocks you 5 skill in addition to insane chi regen in next patch.

What exactly is broken is what I dont get. Does low dmg? Well you use cc break version maybe

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ground lightning pentagram

Its lightning draw last tier hongmoon skill. There is chance it gets unlocked in next weeks patch when bloodharbour releases because training tome is supposed to drop there

[TheRealBronx]

If your only follow-up for a stun is (F) Take Flight, you're not getting as much damage as you could, if you were to utilize more of the BM's kit.

 

Assuming your (2) Rush is spec'd to stun, your draw stance (LB) Flicker is set to stun, and your draw stance (2) Raid is set to prolong stun duration, here's a basic bread and butter combo I do to give you an example of what's possible:

 

2 (stun) - LB - LB - 4 - draw stance LB (stun)- RB - RB - 2 (extend stun) - RB - E (back to normal stance) - LB - F - air combo of choice.

[Kutsuu]

That's what I love about BM, there are a TON of combo options and throughout you're constantly switching stances to regain focus or spend it for damage. I rarely see 2 BMs use the same combo. It just feels more enjoyable to me than Destroyer or KFM ani cancel combos. 

[Treble557]

Honestly, Blade Call + Lightning Rod + Whirling Scourge seems like this classes only saving grace in PVE so far. It's like going SSJ when you pop it all, and you just obliterate everything. 

But then it goes on a one minute CD and everything else seems very meh and you feel pretty weak. It feels like a very spikey damage dealer in pve atm. :/ It's hard to make the other talents work for you, and half of them seems broken! Like the blocking talents not giving back HP and not dazing targets that hit the block. 

[ShakaAlek]

Now I don't know if I just get bad party members in dungeon, but with my BM, if I hit a boss first, I usually keep the aggro at least until I'm knocked down or somehow interrupted, and that is basically without using draw stance, so my damage can't be that bad. While the blade call and the rest give you a pretty massive damage spike, the "normal" sustained damage doesn't seem too bad to me, especially if you consider that the class has pretty good survivability, with the 20% life steal on basic attacks and 10% max hp recovery every 20 second if you hit your C. Also Take Flight's cooldown can be lowered to 18 secs.

[Treble557]

maybe life steal = more aggro then just damage?

[Chesnya]

to be a good BM, you have to be Korean, simple. if you're not master race; find another class to play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Kutsuu]

34 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

Honestly, Blade Call + Lightning Rod + Whirling Scourge seems like this classes only saving grace in PVE so far. It's like going SSJ when you pop it all, and you just obliterate everything. 

But then it goes on a one minute CD and everything else seems very meh and you feel pretty weak. It feels like a very spikey damage dealer in pve atm. :/ It's hard to make the other talents work for you, and half of them seems broken! Like the blocking talents not giving back HP and not dazing targets that hit the block. 

 

Flash step spam (3x) can usually handle groups on its own. Worst case you can also take divebomb and spam it after 3, X (can Tab or C to daze other mobs), and crash. 

 

The blocking talent that you're complaining about is the middle tier, right? They will only be stunned, and you will only gain HP, when they hit during the PARRY period, which is .5 seconds. For the rest of the 1.5 seconds you are blocking, it' just normal block.

[Treble557]

How do you get flash step x3 to proc? For me it seems to only proc once on evade/4 key, and sometimes twice, sometimes 3x. It's never consistent. What do I have to do to make it always 3?

[Kutsuu]

4 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

How do you get flash step x3 to proc? For me it seems to only proc once on evade/4 key, and sometimes twice, sometimes 3x. It's never consistent. What do I have to do to make it always 3?

 

It can be used up to 3x on crit (it only re-enables if you crit). If you have low crit chance (below 10%), you're going to have inconsistency even when pulling lots of mobs. I have about 25% crit chance and if I have the usual 8+ mobs, I get 3x reliably. 

[Treble557]

I have 40% crit atm and its inconsistent. :/

[Kutsuu]

10 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

I have 40% crit atm and its inconsistent. :/

 

It's not going to be reliable unless you are using flash step on a group of mobs. I'd expect 6+ mobs should be pretty reliable for you unless RNJesus hates you. 

[Treble557]

Yeah, im more thinking when it comes to boss fights and how useful it was on my blade dancer on those types of battles. BM doesn't have the same luxury sadly. I also dont like that I have to spec my LMB* for aoe instead of it just being AOE, but I do like the heal on it. So I guess it works out.

[Shimond]

For people having issue with Blade Master AE damage I would strongly suggest morphing stomp into dive bomb.  This can be used twice in a row if you're fast enough when you do your own knockdown - and I'm sure you realize by now how short the cooldown on our knockdown is.  You can also fit one in after you do your air combos on non-boss mobs (bosses are never knocked down after the air for us).

[Treble557]

I just wish the tab key wasn't so.. awkward. Is there a way to make it not shitty feeling to use? or is it just a crap skill

[Kutsuu]

13 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

I just wish the tab key wasn't so.. awkward. Is there a way to make it not shitty feeling to use? or is it just a crap skill

 

Talking about lunar slash? It's useful at low levels for AOE damage, but the primary use at high level is for the AOE daze if you spec'd it. It can sometimes be useful to knock an Assassin out of stealth if they are on top of you. 

 

I haven't really tried to use the higher damage/cooldown version of lunar slash. Seems lackluster. 

[Shimond]

17 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

I just wish the tab key wasn't so.. awkward. Is there a way to make it not shitty feeling to use? or is it just a crap skill

Morphing it into the daze is great as it gives you another CC but also gives you the ability to self combo stun boss mobs.

[Treble557]

Can I get a quick run down of Blade Storm from you guys? It looks like it'll only proc when flash step can be procced. So im wonderin, does it consume said proc? or does it just open with it, and you have to use it SUPER FAST so you can use both that and your flash step proc? Also, does it refresh on crits like flash step

[Shimond]

7 minutes ago, Treble557 said:

Can I get a quick run down of Blade Storm from you guys? It looks like it'll only proc when flash step can be procced. So im wonderin, does it consume said proc? or does it just open with it, and you have to use it SUPER FAST so you can use both that and your flash step proc? Also, does it refresh on crits like flash step

That's the X key when in Draw Stance while Flock of Blades is going, isn't it?  I think it's just available under those conditions without any extra modifiers, except like flash step can be used 3x if you crit (which I have yet to actually do using it to know for sure).