[NA]10 BM's in the top 500

[Zooks]

What is going on with this class? I understand having disadvantaged, or downright terrible matchups, but BM representation is absolutely dismal right now. Are we not popular because we're weak this patch, or is there more to it? Supposedly it's going to get better at 50, but I'm starting to become a bit skeptical that 50 will be our magic bullet. I'm not going to re-roll because I like the class a lot, but I'd like to hear the thoughts of more experienced BM's. I went 15/8 to get to Gold at level 39 which is pretty terrible, but I felt like I had to play a lot better to get those wins than I did on any of my alts.

[wolftonrei]

Can't say much from the bm perspective, but from the opposite side i have observed that it tends to be more of a patient/ defensive class. Those who go in guns ablazing just become handy blood mops as there damage isn't really potent enough to blow every thing on. Though i have heard some things floating around that if you have the hongmoon skill for lightning draw you can pull off 10k crits. So entirely viable, but not very palatable to the playerbase it seems as i feel it shines better as a class that punishes sloppy play which contradicts the typical blind aggressive play of some one who is new/ casual, and therefore do not yet know or care to learn about patience. On the flip side the easy to grasp summoner right now occupies almost 30% of the gold+ ranks. So summing it up any new player who has any awareness of the current pvp scene will look for the more "op" classes to play leaving those like the bm, or fm to kind of suffer massive droughts as few people see innate value in them.

[LiquidRev]

BM is terrible at 45 they are best at 50. Even skill 45 relies on an alt class that isn't released until March 2nd, we'll be lucky if there is even enough of them to hit 45 given the player drop off as of late. I have said this many times ANETs completely backwards thinking is going to hurt their own game. Give us level 50 already stop pulling this archeage crap, do you not see the player dropoff?

[wolftonrei]

15 minutes ago, LiquidRev said:

BM is terrible at 45 they are best at 50. Even skill 45 relies on an alt class that isn't released until March 2nd, we'll be lucky if there is even enough of them to hit 45 given the player drop off as of late. I have said this many times ANETs completely backwards thinking is going to hurt their own game. Give us level 50 already stop pulling this archeage crap, do you not see the player dropoff?

I doubt having the lvl 50 patch would make much of a difference in a player drop off rate. Blade and soul is still rater new so the ones dropping off are most likely the thrill seekers who are looking for the next amusement park to visit as they tend to churn through mmos as if there life depended on it. Honestly though i kind of like that we didn't immediately start off with the current korea version. For one it makes it so that players don't burn through all the content and then have to wait for everything to be translated over from Korea. It also keeps the pvp scene in constant flux making it so that it never truely stagnates for long stretches of time as it seems they are going for new content about every month or so.

[Truce]

41 minutes ago, LiquidRev said:

BM is terrible at 45 they are best at 50. Even skill 45 relies on an alt class that isn't released until March 2nd, we'll be lucky if there is even enough of them to hit 45 given the player drop off as of late. I have said this many times ANETs completely backwards thinking is going to hurt their own game. Give us level 50 already stop pulling this archeage crap, do you not see the player dropoff?

 

general consensus in korea is BM is still bottom tier tho. I don't know if holding that lvl-50-patch carrot in front of new bm players is a good idea

[Pbblade]

Honestly, you can thank summoners for that. You will never win against a summoner with a bit of brain, it's litterally 10/90%. Due to the ladder being swarmed with them, it's the main reason for that. It's also sins that are troubled with summoners that you get matched against (another very favourable matchup against BM) making it extremely hard to climb.

[Zooks]

5 hours ago, Truce said:

 

general consensus in korea is BM is still bottom tier tho. I don't know if holding that lvl-50-patch carrot in front of new bm players is a good idea

 

See, that's the thing I didn't want to hear lol. I was hoping 50 would put us middle of the pack. Oh well, one class has to be the weakest. I seem to have an affinity for choosing them as my main in MMORPGs. 

[Seyd]

55 minutes ago, Zooks said:

 

See, that's the thing I didn't want to hear lol. I was hoping 50 would put us middle of the pack. Oh well, one class has to be the weakest. I seem to have an affinity for choosing them as my main in MMORPGs. 

Reminds me of Slayer from Tera. My favorite class gets utterly destroyed by most classes. Strong burst, decent mobility and CC. It's essentially a jack of all trades class that's a mix between high speeds and high power (sound familiar?). Seems like classes that are supposed to have tools to deal with all situations end up having that very strength as their weakness. Ironic isn't it? A class without strengths is, by definition, a weak class because they have no strengths to outsource their weaknesses. Destroyers and KFMs have stronger burst, SUMs have better CC, Assassins have higher mobility, etc. BM's have "balance" but look where that got us. It's sad.

[Kutsuu]

2 hours ago, Zooks said:

 

See, that's the thing I didn't want to hear lol. I was hoping 50 would put us middle of the pack. Oh well, one class has to be the weakest. I seem to have an affinity for choosing them as my main in MMORPGs. 

 

It's not true though... Jaesung and Hanjunho ("eyebrows" - widely considered #1 BM on all regions) have mentioned that BM is a top tier class many times in response to questions in their twitch chat. That shouldn't matter so much to you, though, because the summoner and assassin matchups don't get THAT much different with 50... it's just a couple of abilities that give you a bigger edge. You still need to be a master of stringing together combos with whatever CCs you have available and knowing exactly when and where to block or Q/E/SS. That stuff doesn't change and none of us are masters at it. 

[Kutsuu]

Also I do want to try and point out that the number of BMs in the top 500 does not necessarily quantify how good or bad the class is. If you look at EU, they have FAR more BMs in the top 500 than we do, and 3 in the top 10 last I looked, multiple diamond BMs! I'm afraid a big part of the lack of BMs on NA is a simple case of NA players doing the same thing they're accustomed to doing in all the other MMOs - playing what is considered the strongest class. Any of you guys who have played other MMOs surely remember the majority of the player base who always flock to whatever is widely considered the strongest class, often quitting their "main" in order to get more wins. I've never seen a worse game for this than Neverwinter, where the developers purposely release new classes massively overpowered (and nerf the previous OP class) to get the rerollers to buy it and reroll - these guys have a business model that is based around the average NA player mentality. 

 

So what we have is a two-fold issue... everyone says you have to play Summoner (or LBM/Dest) in order to succeed, and everyone says BM is hopelessly under powered and can't possibly succeed against most classes. The "flock" comes to the forum/reddit to make their class decision and sees these threads... They may have thought BM looked cool and many of them may have been successful playing a BM, but they were led a different direction. While the reality may be that, due to the huge skill factor in this game, any class can be successful, it really doesn't matter here because of our mentality carried over from previous games where gear/class were 98% of equation. 

 

[Kutsuu]

Also just a fun little video Second made that might motivate some BMs out there 

 

 

 

[voodooblade]

19 minutes ago, Kutsuu said:

Also just a fun little video Second made that might motivate some BMs out there 

 

 

 

 

Only reason that BM has that sorta burst is because they got the hm skill. Yes while Hm skills help, with BM you NEED it to have any real burst damage. While Destroyer, kfm, bd can just burn from the gate. Furthermore using a "Highest tier" player as an analogy would be like saying "Hey why can't you lift that? arnold could when he was your age." Or "Why can't you afford that, Donald trump or Hilary could." If the average were on par with the top 2%, then the top 2% would be average. I bring this up because I am tired of reading "Jaesung could do it." when he is world champion and has years of experience compared to the bulk of NA and EU player. 

This is why I am selling my soulstones for gold, to buy my HM skill because I refuse to run BnS pathetic excuse of end game PVE. And as a themepark MMO you sorta need that good end game raid and dung instances to carry you. Good 1v1 pvp alone will not carry this game to the masses, just the Niche market. Which is fine, but don't go QQing when population continues to decline. 

 

This being said atm I am a gold BM hit plat and then rightly dropped back down. Because at my current level of play I don't rate the Plat level. I have improved vastly, but still need lots of work to hit this upper tier. Meanwhile I got my destroyer and BD to plat with minimum effort. because those classes have clear strengths to work off of, and lets be honest with Destroyer or KFM 1 mistake and the game can easily be over. As a BM if my foe makes an error, its not gg. Rather it takes 2 to 3 errors to put the match on my side. However this is what drives me to the class and to get good, the Handicap I have to overcome makes every victory seemed earned, I never feel as if I won due to luck, terrible mismatch or preexisting class advantages. Minus Fm of course, however at gold+ fm seem to know how to easily counter BM. So I'd argue BM advantage either vanishes entirely, or dissipates against them due to fm knowing not to keep stunning themselves against our block. 

 

And this brings me to BM biggest Handicap, while it doesn't fail or exceed anywhere offensively. Defensively it is one of the worst if not the worst. The BM block can't be used in motion like kfm, Nor can it be used to parry from afar while keeping momentum like the BD. And Spamming our block is the best way to get destroyed outside of silver matches. While KFM, Destroyer, and BD can spam there's with far, far less if any consequences. So you have a class with low burst, no real offensive strength, and probably the most laughable defensive option in the game. But that's part of the thrill, as much as a headache to deal with at times.

 

Blade dancer should have been named Blade spinner, while Blade Master should be changed to dancer. Because a good blade master requires coordination, similiar to that of a waltz. The Combo's are complicated in retrospect to many classes, and lack the prowess of damage. As such it feels more like slowly ticking away at a foes hp, rather then blowing apart huge chunks.  But that's my own theory. And much like my original op thoughts, this will most likely change as I better understand the class...or remain the same. Because even the Plat BM I whisper have echoed most of these points. 

[Zooks]

13 hours ago, Kutsuu said:

 

It's not true though... Jaesung and Hanjunho ("eyebrows" - widely considered #1 BM on all regions) have mentioned that BM is a top tier class many times in response to questions in their twitch chat. That shouldn't matter so much to you, though, because the summoner and assassin matchups don't get THAT much different with 50... it's just a couple of abilities that give you a bigger edge. You still need to be a master of stringing together combos with whatever CCs you have available and knowing exactly when and where to block or Q/E/SS. That stuff doesn't change and none of us are masters at it. 

 

I may have to accept that I suck too bad to play a BM at a reasonable level, and that's fine, but I feel completely disadvantaged in nearly every matchup. It's pretty frustrating. I'm still going to main it because it's fun to play. Also, the HM skill, which finally gives us good burst, costs 600g on my server which is a real downer lol. I'm not even remotely close to being able to afford that. Also, if you have spare time and don't mind could you see how BM representation is in the top 500 on EU? Just to sate my curiosity. 

[Maeyamada]

Jaesung confirmed BM are underpowered in pvp in his most recent stream. Says "quit blade master or just pve until level 50," 

[Zooks]

10 hours ago, Maeyamada said:

Jaesung confirmed BM are underpowered in pvp in his most recent stream. Says "quit blade master or just pve until level 50," 

 Damn lol. I saw him leveling one, but didn't see him PVP on it at all. Maybe Eyebrows would have a different opinion. Although, after playing the 50 patch for so long, I kind of doubt it. 

[Truce]

11 minutes ago, Zooks said:

 Damn lol. I saw him leveling one, but didn't see him PVP on it at all. Maybe Eyebrows would have a different opinion. Although, after playing the 50 patch for so long, I kind of doubt it. 

 

eyebrows has trouble reaching diamond but hey BM is perfectly fine according to everyone and it just takes more skill to master. I guess playing the game for 3 years is not enough to master. eyebrows just need to git gud. 

[Zooks]

11 minutes ago, Truce said:

 

eyebrows has trouble reaching diamond but hey BM is perfectly fine according to everyone and it just takes more skill to master. I guess playing the game for 3 years is not enough to master. eyebrows just need to git gud. 

 

Eyebrows has a NA BM or are you talking about KR?

[Truce]

Just now, Zooks said:

 

Eyebrows has a NA BM or are you talking about KR?

 

NA.

 

Jaesung is supposed to be decent with BM too and he rage quitted stream yesterday while playing BM. but I'm sure he just needs to git gud too since BM is supposedly perfectly fine. 

[Zooks]

41 minutes ago, Truce said:

 

NA.

 

Jaesung is supposed to be decent with BM too and he rage quitted stream yesterday while playing BM. but I'm sure he just needs to git gud too since BM is supposedly perfectly fine. 

 

Wow lol. Would not expect Jaesung to rage quit even if BM is weak. He's usually so positive. 

[Syrath]

45 minutes ago, Zooks said:

 

Wow lol. Would not expect Jaesung to rage quit even if BM is weak. He's usually so positive. 

Jaesung got frustrated and stopped playing due to the number of summoners he ran into after 1800 and BM's ability to counter them in the current patch. Now if someone like Jae or Jungho (top skill level players) gets frustrated with not just the balance but the number of people playing the class it is reasonable to expect new players to have a similar feelings and reroll or stop playing which is a real bummer. Not to say he did not lose to other classes but the summoners were the proverbial nail in the coffin.

I think everyone in NA at least with MMO experience in PvP can on some level understand the frustrations of constantly going up against the same class that is deemed FoTM due to people flocking to so they can "get gud" as these forums deem.