Block skill, CC and Airbone.

[Aiyik]

It is worth speccing into the block tree? Blade Strike can deal damage but the timing is hard and what does other block do?

 

and which CC should I focus on PVE? I was thinking of speccing boot into having knockdown so I'll two knockdown skill to fight bosses while soloing.

 

and how do you execute the airbone skills? do I have to face the airbone target? or just simply mash any button?

[Els]

Block T2F3 allows you to heal 1% of your max hp per blocked attack (up to 3 times per cast), which is pretty nice.
Block T2F2 allows you to deflect for the first 0.5s of the block, meaning you can stun if you manage to block an attack within this timeframe.
Block T2F1 well... I can't find a good reason to use it for pve.
I run PvE with Block T5F3, because of the HM skill. When I block, I can press F and gives a 3-hits shield to all party members, it also heals me for 10% hp.

Cyclone T1 will requires either a resist from Multislash (Rush T4F2 - Basic Stance 2), a resist from Five-Point Strike T3F2 or T3F3, or a parry (Block T2F2, or T2F1).
But if you intend to tank, you will most likely take Cyclone T3F2 for the +150% threat bonus on Cyclone cast.

Since I'm a tank I always run with Cyclone T3F2. T3 has more CD (9 sec instead of 6sec) but provides resist.

About CC for PvE, it all depends what you do, if you're farming lot of monsters, you will want AoE CC, such as Shoulder Charge F2, Anklebiter T1 for 5m range, maybe Lunar Slash F2 for AoE daze. If you're up against bosses, you will often need CC of the same type. Boot T1F2 is nice because of its short cooldown, coupled with Anklebiter and Soaring Falcon T1F3 allows you to Boot + Anklebiter / Boot + Soaring Falcon. 
Be careful with KD, as some bosses tend to do a 'get-up attack' when KDed.
In my current PvE build i have :
3 KDs : Boot (Single target), Soaring Falcon (Single target), Anklebiter (AoE)
2 Dazes : Shoulder Charge (Single target), Lunar Slash (AoE)

 

Air combo is in 2 phases,
First phase you can use either Rising Eagle, or Heavenly Dance.
Second phase you can use Ascend or Crash.
Note that it does not depends on you only, if you knockup a target, and another BM use Rising Eagle or Heavenly Dance, you won't be able to do it, unless you cast it before he hits the target.

To executed air combo, you need to knockup the target first, and be in basic stance.
Ways to knockup for a BM :
Take Flight (Basic Stance F) on a stunned / dazed target.
Five-Point Strike T3F1 (Draw Stance 3)

[Stormpooper]

I'll just go ahead and assume you're a low level BM.

Right now I recommend speccing into blade strike (F2 works, but not as good to practice) whenever you can to practice your parry timing. If you can learn it, parry (F2 (the .5s parry and 2s block) will be a good help in PvE for lightning build (cyclone focus recovery). It helps in PvP as well, but depends on the enemy. Of course, once you get HM block you might forget about parry, but I still keep it around on bosses the party can beat without trouble surviving.

CCs (like boot) are kinda useless until you get ~45-50 lvl in the game. I went through the story with parry/block and honed slash+flicker/pierce. At first, if you choose to stay with block or get F2 right off the bat, 2 points in pierce are enough and then you can level up easily. If you want to go for honed slash, check out builds for it (focus recovery is crucial) and look up ani-cancel with BM.
I suggest you put your skill points in Blade Call, 5 Point Strike and Pierce to get good damage instead of CCs.

to attack airborne enemies, first level up. You should get 3 skills I think. One will be on F - to launch enemies airborne. Another one will be LMB - this will attack the airborne enemy. And last - you can either LMB or RMB for damage/knockdown. You get one more skill at level 40 - by then you'll understand how it works. Also, DO NOT launch bosses airborne. It ruins your and your party's dps.

[Neonian]

The only merit of Blade Strike in PVP is that it is unaffected by defense-cancelling skills.

 

To that end, it has some utility (in the HM version) versus force masters and I suppose assassins.

[Dlacik]

@Neonian FM can spec snowball to disable offensive-defense instead of defense-cancelling. That will work against blade strike.

[Els]

But before a match start, the FM don't know what the BM will use. And between 2 rounds, well it's a mind game, if the FM decides to change to counter what the BM had previously, and the BM also change... it's a gamble.
Against assassins, you need to make sure to not let Blade Strike attack hit into their decoy, or cancel before it strikes.

[Dlacik]

You`re right but i think it`s still better to go with S2 block against FM, because the funny thing with snowball is that its S2 has defense-cancelling but doesn`t have parry piercing.

And because snowball is a projectile you can (if you are fast enough) bait snowball by standing with block, cancel the block and recast it to parry snowball & stun FM.

 

Of course this is unless you have HM block and wants to have winged protector against them.