Blademasters

[darbey]

Whats best race, start stats and spec for a bm these days?

Thanks

 

[Glacier]

The 3 best choises IMO are:

Celt (Only like Celts for BM`s atm, firby too big and slow)

50Blunt
50Celtic
28Parry

(Starting Points= 10str, 15con)The most common one atm, and would say one of the most effective ones aswell.. in armour resistances and styles..u get a nice 10 sec after parry 2 combo that comes in handy when ur being attacked/1 on 1 situations.
Being neutral to All mid`s, and get bonus on alb tanks, friars and asassains.

50Pierce
50celtic
28parry

(Starting points =10str, 10con, 10dex)Also a very nice spec, Covers Mages and Healers really well (you will get bonus VS any healer of another realm exept the Friar) and ofc Neutral on the mages...
Fast nice strikes makes this a lethal spec, and with a very nice 5 sec after evade stun giving you a nice upper hand in them 1 on 1`s or when hit.

50Weapon
50Shield(*42 shield)
28parry(*39 parry)

For the shieldmaster, in my opinion the best defansive tank in the game, with your 360 degree evade, evade 3, and raising a well amount of dex per lvl, will make you very hard to kill one on one and give you the everloving guard and slam abilites for group, activating TW(Triple Wield, i think its 50% damage add, usable every 7 minutes) you will be immune to criticl hits on yourself (past 1.62) and will deal a nice amount of damage, even as 1 hander.
And with many heavy tanks/champs going for reinforced armour these days.. well, you go figure..

I cant really tell you much about the sword specline, cause i dont know much about it.. i think it has a very nice anytime 3 combo tho.


Anyways, very hard to gimp yourself as a BM, but if you wanna be completely sure about your BM, ask Tantalon or Sharwyn ingame.

 

[darbey]

Thats excellent info thank very much. Pierce looks like good to me.

 

[old.Kian]

Personally, I went 44 pierce 44 CD 44 parry... I really don't miss the 50 pierce style and the extra parry makes me a more effective duellist/one on one fighter/PvE tank. If your endgame is nothing but full group/large scale RvR then 50 weapon and 50 CD will probably suit you better.

I suggest not asking Sharwyn for advice ingame unless you want to be actively discouraged by someone going on about what a gimped class BMs are On the other hand, Sharwyn HAS been through more respecs than any other BM I know of... Tantalon's a good person to ask about using pierce, I taught him all he knows

Another suggestion - if you want to go pierce, you could wait until the 1.62 patch and try an elf blademaster for the extra dex and quickness... make sure you dump plenty of points into str and con if you do so.

 

[Falcon]

Elf blademasters will be pointless for anything other than looks. That's why they weren't whined out the game by existing BMs and Mids/Albs like Celt NS' were :/

 

[Happlo]

Celt BM is the way to go, unless you are considering Blunt (slowest weapon choice for BMs) were you may aswell go the whole hog for frontload dmg and choose firby. Either way, both celt and firby will do well end spec, just dont go elf

Another viable spec (and the one I use) is 50 Weapon (pierce for me) 44 CD and 37 parry. This is a good all round spec, will a little more defence for duels, 1Vs1 and PvE fights, but still gives the highest weaponskill with the 50 Weapon.

In my opinion its always worth taking weapon to 50, and blunts 9 sec stun off 2nd in parry chain is at 50, also blades gets a nice 2nd in back possisional style which is good for those running casters/support!!

The only one you can get away with is (as Kian uses) 44 Pierce, as the lvl 50 Pierce style isnt too hot, 3rd in an evade chain and the dmg doesnt increase much/at all over the 1st and 2nd part.

 

[old.Kian]

As an update - I'm seriously considering using my respec with 1.62 to go 44 Pierce 50 CD 37 Parry to take full advantage of the beefed-up side positional chain BMs will get... plus I've had a lot of practice with my reaver of stunning then strafing round to deliver a side style, so should be able to make a handy duelling trick of that.

 

[Happlo]

Originally posted by old.Kian
As an update - I'm seriously considering using my respec with 1.62 to go 44 Pierce 50 CD 37 Parry to take full advantage of the beefed-up side positional chain BMs will get... plus I've had a lot of practice with my reaver of stunning then strafing round to deliver a side style, so should be able to make a handy duelling trick of that.

Yeah, that'd work nicely in duels. I've been practicing getting it off in open RvR lately too. Its not really that tricky tbh, and when they increase the scope on the side possisional styles next patch so you dont need to be exactly in the right position it'll be easier.

Whats the dmg increase on the CD side chain anyway? Is it about 15% increase?

 

[Jiggs]

i'm considering:

50pierce
50celtic dual
23shield
17parry

on the other had i may just run with the more normal 50/50 then 10shield and 27parry...

but for the loss of 5% parry chance 23 shield brings you quite a considerable gain in versatility etc

on another note i think its nuts to go anything less than 50 in your chosen damage type, but thats only my opinion :]

 

[zithal]

I can't decide between cd and shield. Would this spec be to allround to be good?

Weapon 50
Shield 42
CD 34
Parry 20

 

[old.Kian]

Personally, I'd be loath to spec both CD and shield because you can't hotkey a switch from sword+shield to dual wielding, the way hybrid LW/spearo types can. Given how slow and creaky my reactions are at my advanced age, and how terribly my palsied hands shake as I try to re-equip a left hand weapon in md-battle... I'd rather not lose the seconds required in a close fight If I were to go shield, I'd leave CD unspecced completely and effectively be an evadey shield hero without moose.

Having said which, you're better off asking someone who has actually played a shield specced BM... Sharwyn or Dreamhealer/Eveide are the two that spring instantly to mind.

 

[Jiggs]

well i'm not advocating a high shield spec, just enough so u have more effectivness in sieges and in PvE with a minimal loss of frontal defense (5%parry)

also that 6sec rear slamm at 23shield is handy

there are situations where you want to stand on your caster/druid and guard them, ofc a S+S hero will do it better but 23shield allows you that option...