Overview
The Blademaster is the Human warrior, part damage dealer and part tank. It fights at the front line and can hold back several enemies at once with strong area attacks. Its skills cover raw power, damage over time, stuns and speed, which gives it the widest variety of skills and stat builds of any class. It belongs to the Human race together with the Wizard and Technician.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| High HP and physical defence | Low magic defence at early levels |
| Many weapons and skills to choose from | Weapon swapping can make it hard to play |
| Good stuns and area skills; can fight many monsters at once | So many skills that learning them all costs a lot of spirit |
| A strong area debuff that raises damage taken | Expensive repairs and low accuracy in PvP |
Starting stats
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| HP | 75 |
| HP regeneration | 2 per second |
| MP | 45 |
| Physical attack | 4–6 |
| Accuracy / evasion | 50 / 50 |
| Movement speed | 5.0 m/s |
| HP per Vitality point / per level | 15 / 30 |
| MP per level | 18 |
| Accuracy and evasion per Dexterity point | 10 |
Weapon paths
Blademaster skills need different weapons, so most players build to use more than one weapon type. The weapons fall into four groups, each asking for a different mix of Strength and Dexterity. Weapon sockets usually hold garnet (physical attack) shards.
| Path | Weapons | Needs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axes / hammers | Dual axes, poleaxe, dual hammers, polehammer | Most Strength, least Dexterity | Very high top damage but slow; the most common build. The Rank 9 Blademaster weapon is dual axes |
| Polearms | Pike, poleblade, club | High Strength, some Dexterity | Longest reach; an extra damage-over-time effect |
| Swords | Blade, dual blades, sword, dual swords | High Dexterity, some Strength | Best against single targets |
| Fists | Fist, claw | Most Dexterity, least Strength | Fastest attacks, used mostly for auto-attacking; less popular than before |
Armour and shards
Heavy armour is the usual choice because Blademasters spend most of their time in close combat; light armour is possible but gives lower defence. To wear heavy armour, the wiki suggests adding 5 Strength and 1 Dexterity every 2 levels. Armour sockets usually get citrine (health) or Vitality shards, which help against both physical and magic attacks; sapphire (magic defence) only helps against magic. PvP players may use Attack Level or Defense Level shards instead (see Stats and Attributes).
Role in groups
Once it has its area skills, the Blademaster is a good solo grinder that can take on several monsters at once. In a squad it has three jobs:
- Tank: a backup if the Barbarian falls, or the main tank when there is none. Keeping the boss's attention away from high-damage classes takes experience.
- Damage: Heaven's Flame, Myriad Sword Stance and Glacial Spike are strong choices. Heaven's Flame also makes the boss take more damage, from 55% at skill level 1 up to 100% at level 10, with a 12-metre range.
- Crowd control: protecting casters from stray monsters with the area stun Roar of the Pride, axe area attacks and the ranged spear and sword skills.
PvP and Territory Wars
In PvP each path plays differently: swords suit one-on-one fights, polearms reach far and are good against kiting ranged classes, and axes and hammers stun, lower defence and hit hard. After the Sage or Demon choice, many PvP Blademasters take the Demon path for its faster attacks and swap weapons mid-fight, for example stunning with an axe and then finishing with fists. In Territory Wars Blademasters often act as the tank, stopping groups with area skills.
Sources
Game pictures: © Perfect World Entertainment / Arc Games · arcgames.com