Blade Master Skills

[Kozumii]

Hello. 

I haven't been playing BnS for that long (5 - 7 Days). Maxed a Gunner and now I'm trying with Blade Master. 

I've seen different videos, pictures and even played against some Blade masters in pvp that had a set of skills different than what I have right now in my BM lvl 45. One of those is called "Lightning Draw". My question is at what lvl do I get that skill or if I have it how do I activate it? 

 

I've been reading some posts about BM trying to understand but I'm confused about Soul/Mystic Badge and even Royal Zen Bean stuff. 

[Richtofen]

Do you use Fire BM? If you do, thats why.. Lighting draw is a Lightning BM skill.

About gear, i can't provide much help because i don't play BM seriously.

[KuroAme]

The difference in their skills compared to yours is that they are most likely using special skills knows as 'Hongmoon Skills'. 

Hongmoon skills are master skills that unlock bonus attributes to certain skills like increasing damage, increasing effect duration, and extra combo options. 

Hongmoon skills become available after you unlock them under the Achievement Character Skills (U key). Each skill has a different requirement to unlock.

 

One of the special HM skills that all Blade Masters should seek out is HM Lightning Draw [Move 2] (or HM Searing Slash [Move 2] with the fire build). This is unlocked by eating the Royal Zen Bean which you can buy from the Zen Bean Trader Dragon Trade Courier found inside Arena matches or Mushin's Tower. 

 

Zen Bean Trader https://pasteboard.co/H1PRDbx.jpg

HM Lightning Draw https://pasteboard.co/H1PShzw.jpg

HM Searing Slash https://pasteboard.co/H1PSuux.jpg

 

[Plua]

If you plan to pvp a lot or do ToI for badges, then by all means you can and should get the HM skill for move 2 which comes from the Royal Zen Bean, purchased with zen beans obtained from arena. However, for pve, you'll need the Hongmoon skill for move 1/3 which is learned by using a "Retrieved Hongmoon Secret Technique - Volume 4" which can be bought from the marketplace or dropped in Naryu Foundry.

 

Move 1 and Move 3 of these skills in their Hongmoon form create a damaging hexagram field on the ground after the initial hit, making them excellent for dealing with groups of trash mobs and also providing a damage (and threat) increase on bosses. Overall, this more than doubles the damage potential of Searing Slash/Lightning Draw in pve.

 

Move 2 of these skills in their Hongmoon form has considerably lower damage on its own, as well as almost double the cooldown period. However, in exchange they will also do significant damage to a target afflicted with CC effects such as Stun, Knockdown or Daze (Up to triple that of the potential of Move 1/3).

 

Another Hongmoon skill I highly advise getting for both pvp and pve is what most refer to as "HM Block" but now is actually the Hongmoon version of the "Winged Protector" skill. This increases the number of hits your party I-frame can take from 1 to 3 and is obtained by using a "Retrieved Hongmoon Secret Technique - Volume 2" which can be bought from an Arena or Battleground Vendor or pieced together using fragments that drop in Avalanche Den and Awakened Necropolis.

 

An additional skill worthy of mention, although mostly for pvp purposes, is the Hongmoon version of Soaring Falcon. This bonus skill allows your Z Move-2 to pull a fairly wide range of enemies to you, while also stunning them and inflicting moderate damage. Furthermore, it also increases your attack power by 10% for each enemy it manages to pull, for 5 seconds. When coupled together with Move-2 of Lightning Draw/Searing Slash as well as having moderate to high gear, this attack combo is capable of defeating most enemies in a single strike or, at the very least, removing a large chunk of their HP.

 

Moving on - Equipment.

The badges you use will differ depending on the elemental build you use and also your current equipment. I'll explain for both later.

Assuming you want to take the most efficient way of upgrading your gear, you'll most likely have a Baleful/Seraph sword or a Dawnforged/Riftwalk sword if you've gotten that high already. I highly recommend taking Seraph and then upgrading it into Riftwalk - and I'll explain why. (Do not worry though - it's possible to change your weapon from Baleful/Dawnforged into Seraph/Riftwalk without having to make an entirely new weapon.)
 

Although you will start off at the end of the story with a full set of Starblade soul shields (which is the Blade Master's version of what everyone refers to as "MSP" soul shield) you will also have a quest which rewards you with 3 pieces of the Lightning soul shield (Referred to as the BT soul shield) and it should be a high priority for you to complete this soul shield as quickly as possible and modify it with better pieces as you get them, as you will be using it for a long while.

An effect of this Lightning shield, when you have all 8 pieces, is that it not only increases the damage of your main attack skill (Dragontongue or Honed Edge, depending on if you use Fire or Lightning respectively) but it also decreases the cooldown of your Phoenix Wing/Blade Call (again, Fire/Lightning respectively) skills by 30%. Coupled with the Seraph/Riftwalk weapon which also reduces these skills' cooldown by 30%, that's an enormous reduction of 60% and reduces the cooldown of these skills to 24 seconds, down from 60. Since Phoenix Wing/Blade Call keeps your Flock of Blades stance active for 14 seconds, that leaves you with only a 10 second downtime, and the Flock of Blades stance gives your main damage skills a significant boost in damage (More than 10%, which is what the Baleful/Dawnforged weapons provide you with) while active. Initially, the two weapons will do similar damage. However, once you obtain your Dragon Bracelet (which becomes significantly easier on the 17th) you will notice a big difference between the two - because the dragon bracelet can only be activated during Flock of Blades due to it triggering on Lightning Rod (C during Flock of Blades stance). Here's where it gets interesting - The bracelet buff lasts for 12 seconds, and Lightning Rod has a 9 second cooldown. If you trigger Lightning Rod at the end of the 12 seconds buff from the bracelet, you'll have it up for another 12 seconds, and it will stay active for the 10 seconds that you do not have Flock of Blades active, meaning that you'll be able to activate it again immediately when your V skill comes off cooldown and keep the bracelet's damage bonus (which is significant for a BM) active permanently.

 

Lastly - Badges.

For both elements, the Soul Badge that works best with the above build is the Transcendence Badge, which causes your Blade Storm (X during Flock of Blades) to be reset after casting Lightning Rod. Since Blade Storm grants 6 seconds of Fulmination (Lightning)/Conflagration (Fire) on hit, and Lightning Rod triggers your bracelet for a damage boost, using this badge allows you to keep 12 seconds of almost uninterrupted dps upkeep while your bracelet is active, and then you can flow easily into a Lunar Slash (Tab) > 2+LMB (Raid + Blade Echo) > Tab (Lunar Slash) combo to keep your Conflagration/Fulmination buffs active until your V is ready again to repeat the cycle.

 

For Mystic Badge, each of the BM's elements uses a different badge.
For Lightning, it is best to use Skyrift - which not only offers a significant increase in Fulmination upkeep time after using Lightning Draw, but also offers focus recovery on every Honed Slash.

For Fire, it is recommended to use Pulse - which offers a decent increase in Dragontongue damage for 8 seconds after using Searing Slash.

There is so much more information to provide, but this should keep you straight for a decent while. Sorry for the long post.

[Kozumii]

Thank you so much for your answers. This has helped me a lot.