Silkroad Online Forums

A community forum for the free online game Silkroad Online. Discuss Silkroad Online, read up on guides, and build your character and skills.

Faq Search Members Chat  Register Profile Login

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 188 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 7  Next

Was This Guide Helpful?
Yes. 87%  87%  [ 244 ]
No. 13%  13%  [ 36 ]
Total votes : 280
Author Message
 Post subject: [GUIDE] The Complete Blader
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:43 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
- Edit October 21, 2007:
Manowar is in charge of this Guide now :]


This Guide is co-written by Manowar and fena. :] If you have any questions, I'm sure Manowar, or other Forum members would be glad to help you. Personally, I don't play SRO anymore, so it'd be no use to ask me. :S

- Edit November 12, 2007:
Guide completely updated to this point in time by Manowar.


Anyway, without further ado...





[Guide] The Complete Blader

NOTE: This Blader Guide is meant for the 80 Cap ONLY, for now. When the 90 Cap comes out, I’ll update the guide as soon as I can, but for now, this guide is only meant for the Current 80 Cap.
This is still a work in progress – any opinions or comments, please leave them here, and I’ll update it ASAP. Thank you.

The Name of The Guide?
Why is this guide named, “The Complete Blader?” Because I haven’t seen a reasonable Guide yet, around SRF, that deals specifically with the Blader, and covers every single aspect - unbiased. Cuchulainn’s Blader Guide, certainly, was my example for this one, (as you’ll see me quoting him a lot, since he got everything right) but I’d like to build upon that, if at all possible, as his hasn’t been updated recently. If at all possible, I would like to give my unbiased view upon the Blader, and the build.

Note: This is not a beginner’s guide. While I will go through some miniscule aspects, such as what AR and Parry does, that’s only because it’s important to a Blader – others, such as Physical Attack Reinforcements – what it does, and such, I’ll skip over, as an example, because if I added every single tiny detail, this Guide would take a week to read. So you’ll need some prior SRO knowledge to be able to understand some of the things discussed in this guide.

Table of Contents:
The Blader – Concept & Comparison
Skill Trees & Stat Points / Mastery Combinations - Updated!
Fire VS. Ice
Grasswalk
SP Farming
PvP
PvE
Armor Type
The Blade & Shield
My Personal Thoughts
Special Thanks


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:24 am, edited 12 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:44 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
The Blader – Concept & Comparison

The Concept of a Blader:
Bladers are notorious for “not being able to be killed, but not being able to kill a thing themselves.” While the latter part of the quote is not entirely true, the concept that a Blader is not able to be killed, certainly, is. A Blader is not meant to be a heavy damage-dealer. It is meant to be a Tanker, being able to have mobs upon mobs, hoards upon hoards, of enemies attacking it at once, and be able to tank through it all, and kill them one by one, sometimes by knocking down an enemy, sometimes by their Chains – and look cool, with the flashy Chains, and the sexy blades, and shields, throughout the entire process.

Cuchulainn wrote:
The idea of blade is to sacrifice damage for more defense. So in essence, you don't hit as hard as a glavie, but you can take more or more correctly, you take less damage overall because of the extra defense and the almighty block from your shield.


Blader VS. Glavier, STR-Heavy Bowmen

Pros:
Significantly more tanking ability – higher defense.
Saves money - Uses less pots due to it’s higher defense – this mostly applies to monsters, or players that use Physical Attacks. The difference in damage that a Blader and a Glavier, or Bowmen will take from a monster that uses a Magical Attack, like, say, an Earth Taoist, will not be as noticeable as the difference in damage that the two take from a Power Earth Ghost.
Has KD’s that knockdown the enemy, and unable them to attack for the time being – whereas the Blader can repeatedly stab the enemy while it’s down.
Has a Shield, which further increases defense, as well as blocking attacks – a block may be the deciding factor in a PvP battle between having the time to pot through a Critical from a Glavier, or Bowmen, or lying on the ground dead.

Cons:
Significantly less damage than a Glavier or Bowman – both with regular attacks, and Criticals.
Does not have a Stun ability (pertaining specifically to a Glavier). The Stun ability, on top of immobilizing the enemy, does not allow the enemy to use pots during the Stun. The Stun also cannot be potted away.
Because of the less damage, a Blader also levels slower than a Glavier both. Bowmen level faster than Glaviers, and Glaviers level faster than Blader. (Typo pointed out by Kevv. Thanks!)


Blader VS. Spears, S/S, INT-Heavy Hybrids

Pros:
An insane amount of more tanking ability – higher PHYSICAL defense.
Massive HP, when compared to a Pure INT, or INT-Heavy Hybrid.
Saves money - Uses less pots due to it’s higher defense – this mostly applies to monsters, or players that use Physical Attacks. The difference in damage that a Blader and a Glavier will take from a monster that uses a Magical Attack, like, say, an Earth Taoist, will not be as noticeable as the difference in damage that the two take from a Power Earth Ghost.
Has KD’s that knockdown the enemy, and unable them to attack for the time being – whereas the Blader can repeatedly stab the enemy while it’s down.
Has a Shield, which further increases defense, as well as blocking attacks – a block may be the deciding factor in a PvP battle between having the time to pot through a Critical from a Glavier, or lying on the ground dead.

Cons:
Has an immense amount of difference in MP – a INT-Heavy build will always have much more MP than a Blader.
INT-based builds will always have more Magical Defense than a Blader.
Spears, S/S, or a Hybrid, will always do significantly more damage than a Blader. The average damage from an INT build from a Nuke, will be higher than the average damage from a STR build, from a weapon skill. Yet, the Critical of a STR build will always do more damage than the Critical of an INT build – keep in mind that Nukes do not Critical. Either way, any PLAUSIBLE build in the game will almost certainly, always outdamage a Blader.
Much slower leveling speed. While INT builds are the top of the spectrum, in the aspect of leveling speed, a Blader is at the bottom.


Last edited by fena on Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:45 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
*Manowar updated

Skill Trees & Stat Points

The Basics
As a Blader is usually a Pure STR build (as I highly recommend), its damage will be derived more from the Weapon Trees, rather than the Force Trees – this isn’t to say that an Imbue, or any moves from the Force Tree will not affect the damage of a Blader, as it will – radically - but a Blader’s main damage is derived from the Weapon Trees. As an example, a Blader will do more damage with a Heaven Chain, than it will do with a Fire Nuke – the Heaven Chain is a STR-based attack, while the Fire Nuke, because it is under the Force Tree, is a INT-based attack.
However, a Blader must have some Force Trees as well – not only do the buffs add Defense and Attack, but there are other bonuses – freezing one’s enemy, so they cannot attack, frostbiting one’s enemy, so their attacks are slowed down – quite a bit, burning one’s enemy, so they take damage over time… etc.
As far as Stat Points go… you receive three Stat Points every time you level, to add into either INT or STR – whichever you please, on top of the one Stat Point that is automatically added into STR, and the one Stat Point that is automatically added into INT (making a grand total of five Stat Points per level). I HIGHLY, and STRONGLY recommend adding all and each of your three Stat Points per level into STR. People have tried to make Hybrid Bladers, and they fail miserably, let alone Pure INT Bladers. Pure STR is the sole way to go when making a decent Blader, for the only reason why you would add INT is for the higher damage. But once again, the Blader isn’t about the damage – it’s about the defense.

Temptation wrote:
Strength is a stat point. 3 stat points are given to you at each level, along with 1 stat point in INT and 1 stat point in STR. STR increases your physical damage, physical defense, physical balance, and your overall HP. This means that when using skills that are in your weapon mastery, like anti devil bow or the 3-attack combo for blades, your damage will increase with each STR point. When you are taking in physical damage (slapping, punching, monster attacks that do not look like magic) it will get decreased with every STR point. HP will increase, that's easy. STR is best for critical hits, which are 2 times stronger than your normal attacks but depends on your weapon and it's critical attack rating.

INT increases your magical damage, magical defense, magical balance, and MP. Skills used in your force categories (fire imbue, lightning imbue, cold imbue, nukes) will have increased damage with each INT point. Magical damage done to you will get decreased and MP will increase for ya


Bicheon
Bicheon. The single most important Skill Tree to the Blader – and IMHO, the most sexy: Although some say the Chains get old after a while, my personal opinion is that they do not. The backflips and jumps and slashes keep me entertained for quite a while. So let’s get down to the nitty gritty – the skills that you’ll need, and the skills that you could skip.

Smashing Series
Image
Before the new lvl 80 skills came out, the common conceptions was this skill wasn’t really worth the sp because it seemed unnecessary since it didn’t give any special effects and it’s real easy to do without. After the lvl 80 skills came out, smashing series got the 4th book skill Flying Stone Smash, which in my view gives the skill series an important role in pve and pvp due to the status effect bleed on it. If you’re wondering what bleed is, it will be explained later on.

This skill is kind of on the optional side still since it is possible to live without, however it’s defiantly worth the sp to get this skill.

Chain Sword Attack Series
Image

Cuchulainn wrote:
This is the bread and butter of PVE for bladers. Chains do good damage and the two chains (or one later on) can pretty much kill a monster in PVE. The 4-Combo attack is not very useful for PVP except for inflicting status effect like ice. The 5-Combo attack is a bit more useful in PVP since the last hit is a large hit which followed by a smashing series attack and knockdown attack can give a big chunk of damage in a short amount of time.


MAX ALL the Chains, if not only for the reason that they’re FLASHY as hell. :) Like he said, while it’s not your primary skill in PvP, in PvE, you’ll own with it. This isn’t an iffy skill – should you max it, or should you not max it? Could the SP be better spent elsewhere? No. Without the Chains, you’re not a Blader.

There’s something else that needs to be noted about this series due to the new skills. The new lightning chain has 3 status effects on it; impotent, bleed, and division which make it very effective for pvp and pvm and, along with the other chains, is still a very important skill you should max.

Shield Technique
Image
Cuchulainn wrote:
You are immobilized while using this attack. It abosrbs damage, but for now I don't see much use for these skills. Might be good at higher levels to avoid big attacks if used properly. (Once I level up more I'll up this skill and play around with it).

It’s been fixed so you can move around while this buff is utilized. Baka explains it better than I do.
Bakafish wrote:
It increases physical defence for 15 secs, definitely useful. lol. It is updated, now you can move with it. Too bad its not updated in the skill explanation. Btw same goes for the fanstorm series in heuksal, just that it increases mag defence instead of phy. If youre planning to get castle, make sure you max it including mountain. Its useless if it's not maxed. I can still kill nukers around my lv if its not maxed. Adds 685 phy bonus when maxed, I think


Blade Force Series
Image
One of the two ranged attacks that is in the Bicheon Skill Tree. Max this out, as it’s a good opener attack in PvP, and PvE as well. It’s useful for luring monsters towards you. If the first book, Soul Cut doesn’t seem that impressive, don’t be discouraged – keep leveling it up, because the second book, Evil Cut Blade, has great damage and range.

Hidden Blade Series
Image
The Bread-and-Butter of your PvP – what makes the Bicheon Tree unique. Also known as the Knockdown, or KD, this move gives you a chance to, well… knock down your enemy. While your enemy is knocked down, he is immobilized, and cannot attack you, while you can Stab him when he is laying on the ground. Repeatedly.
Not very manly, I know, stabbing a person who he can’t fight back… but what are you gonna do about it? If he gets up, he might just let fly with one of those massive bombs and kill you, so you might as well kill him first.
Note that this is also good against Giants, when a non-Bicheon user is trying to KS you.
Same as the Chains – without this Series, you’re simply not a Blader.

Killing Heaven Blade Series
Image
This is the series that attacks your enemy while he is knocked down. If you’re not lagging bad, and if you time your attacks carefully, with each KD, when you have all three books of the Stabs, you can actually fit in all three stabs while your enemy is knocked down. That’s four attacks total that your enemy can’t hit you in between – The KD, and then the three Stabs. If you time all of these correctly, there’s a fair chance that whoever you knocked down, won’t be getting back up.
Max this as well. What’s the point of knocking someone down if you can’t stab him and scratch him like a girl while he’s down?

Sword Dance Series
Image
Culachainn wrote:
Good for mass killing blue mobs since it is one of 2 AOE attacks in the bicheon skill tree. Book two only requires level 1 of the first book so no need to level it up unless you use it a lot in PVE. I am leveling both books of this in order to sp farm at 64. I figure these attacks, along with my AOE knockdown and I can kill pretty quickly on the bugs in the cave’s first room.

Something else to add, while the 1st book only has a transfer distance range of 7.0 meters, the 3rd book (which requires 1st book to get) has a transfer distance range of 15.0 meters. I agree with what culachainn says and get 2nd book sword dance and only max out 1st book and get 3rd book if you use 1st book a lot in pvm.

Shield Protection Series

Image
A MUST. Max, without a doubt. This increases the chance that you have to block an attack from an enemy, which is a key strongpoint of a Blader, or a Shield-user in general. Definently worth the SP invested.

New Status Effects

With the new smash series skill and the new chain sword attack series skills, bladers now have new status effects with their chains. Also note, these status effects require a new expensive pill to get rid of and universal pills wont remove these status effects.

Bleed: Causes DOT (damage over time) and lowers your opponent’s defense. This is useful for bladers since it causes your hits to do more damage. Flying Stone Smash and Lightning chain has this status effect

Division: Lowers your opponent’s defense. This can be combined with bleed status effect to really make your attacks really hurt vs your opponent. Lightning chain has this status effect.

Impotent: Lowers the damage your opponent does. If you thought you were hard to kill before, wait till your opponent does less damage on you. Lightning chain has this status effect.

Both Flying Stone Smash and Lightning chain have bleed effect on them so why still get Flying Stone Smash? Well, If you read the skill description for both skills it is more likely that you will get bleed effect on Flying Stone Smash and in pvp situations, Flying Stone Smash can flow much more smoothly in a KD/Stab pattern since it’s a much quicker attack, however lightning chain still has other important status effects that Flying Stone Smash does not.





Required SP to max all the bicheon series skills to lvl 80 = 245,679 sp

Fire:

Fire is the most important Force Tree for any STR-based build. Not only does it have buffs to increase Magical Defense, which any STR-based build is lacking, but it also has a buff (Flame Body Series) that add a percentage to the amount of Physical damage that you deal. When maxed, it adds more than 10% damage, which could add up to quite a bit.

Fire Force Series
Image
The strongest Imbue in SRO. It also burns your target over a period of time (DoT), but the damage that your enemy takes from the burn is so insignificant, that it might as well not be there at all – but it still is the strongest Imbue in the game. Because of the higher damage, it certainly will speed up your PvE by a large amount, but because you lack the freezing and frostbiting, you’ll also take your damage, which will lead to more pot consumption. For more information about the advantages and disadvantages of using Fire, refer to the next section, Fire VS Ice.

Fire Shield Series
Image
A buff - a must to max, if you want to save money, and become Immune to Ice later on. This Skill is such a must, that even non-Bicheon users max this, and carry around a Shield, especially to cast it. This Skill gives you a percentage reduce to your Status Effect, which will enable you to use smaller pills, and save money. In the higher levels, without this Skill, you won’t be able to be Immune to Ice, and as such, will be killed easily. More about Ice Immunity in Fire VS Ice section.

Flame Body Series
Image
Another buff, and another must to max. This increases your Physical Damage, and at the upper levels, more than 15% - which can add hundreds, even thousands of damage to your range. This buff is especially needed for Bladers, because of their low damage – this’ll help to make up for that a little bit. This buff in itself, is one of the sole reasons that STR users must max Fire, no matter what.

Fire Protection Series
Image
A buff that increases Magical Defense. While this buff is not a priority, such as the Flame Body Series is, it definitely is one that you’ll need to max sooner or later. Because you’re Pure STR, while your Physical Defense is high, your Magical Defense will not be. Thus, you’ll take a hell of a lot of damage from Monsters, or Players, such as Nukers that use Magical Attacks – this’ll help you to withstand these attacks a little more, and increase your Tanking ability. And that’s what the Blader is all about, isn’t it?

Fire Wall Series
Image
A move that sets up a wall of fire around you, that helps to absorb Magical Attacks. Know that it takes a second or two to start up, and while the wall is cast, you’re completely immobilized. Not too useful, IMHO, and more for show. When fighting a Pure INT, while his Nukes might deal less damage to you, when he Phantom-walks away, then what? You stand there, unable to chase after him, until you disable your wall. Mobility is key. Max this if you want, although I’d leave it alone.

However:

Dead3y3 wrote:
Also, about Firewall. In my opinion it's worth to get level 1 of the first book. It's very cheap, and although the Mag. HP is not that great. It can take the first nuke of any strength.


He makes a good point. However, IMHO, I don't think any nuke of any strength from a Pure INT of the same level is going to be able to do enough damage that you can't pot through it. :)
But those INTs hit hard, so who knows? Take Dead3y3's comment into thought if you want to think about whether you should put points into it or not - there's a solid point there.

Flame Wave Series
Image
A Nuke – this move is for INT-based builds only, as it draws its damage from INT, something you don’t have much of. Leave it alone, unless you want to plug a point into it to play around – or throw people off in PvP.

Fire Combustion Series
Image

This is a new fire skill that came with the other new skills. What this does is will enhable you to detect those under stealth or invisible (stealth is a skill that rogues use while invisible is a skill that wizards use) in a 10 to 15 meter radius of your character depending on how high of level your skill is. This skill's only real use is in pvp when you are dealing with those two classes and it's not a guaranteed way to detect someone since they could be out of range when you do.

This skill will depend on your experience with those two euro classes on whether or not you should get it. Also be aware if you want this skill to be effective you need to keep it up to your level because if the detect grade is lower than the grade of a person's stealth, the skill is next to useless for them.

Flame Devil Force Series
Image
A MUST MAX Passive. Just like the Flame Body Series, it increases your Physical Damage by a percentage – permanently. God knows you could use the extra damage. :)

Required sp to max all skills to lvl 80 except for fire wall series and flame wave series = 115,935 sp and without fire combustion series = 104,371 sp


Cold:

Cold – the tree that makes the Blader the heavy Tanker that it is. If you’ve ever been frozen in a PvP, and then killed as a result, you’ll know why Cold is such a deadly Skill Tree. While others will say to skip it, because at the cap, most players are Ice-immune, and the damage from Cold is very low compared to Fire, I say, false. Not only are many players at the Cap NOT Ice-immune, but even if they were, the Ice is still great for PvP. While it is true that Cold does less damage than Fire, Fire cannot freeze and immobilize the enemy – which, again, can be a lifesaver. If you decide to get both imbues, you can switch between the two – start off with Ice, and if you figure out that your opponent is Ice-immune, then switch to Fire for the higher damage.

Cold Force Series
Image
The Pure STR Ice Blader is originally SRO badass. Once again, refer to the Fire VS Ice Section, for more information about why you should take the Cold Imbue, as well as the Fire Imbue.
While the Cold Imbue is the Imbue with the lowest damage in the game, it has the best effect out of the three Imbues in the game – it Freezes or Frostbites your enemy.
Freezing your enemy completely immobilizes them so they can’t attack you – while you do jumps and back flips with your Chains and chop them into tiny pieces. Why wouldn’t this be useful?
Frostbiting, while not as good as Freezing, still is a great effect – it slows your enemy down, so much so that it takes him so long to cast off an attack, that he might as well be frozen anyways. Even if he pots through it, the attack that he’s in the middle of doing when you Frostbite him will be slowed down considerably.
The Cold Imbue is amazing for PvE. As stated above, while the damage is lesser than Fire, the effect is better, and enables you to take less money, and tank better. Which, once again, is what the main objective of the Blader is.

Frost Guard Series
Image
A buff that gives you a Physical Defense boost. While a Blader already has enough Physical Defense, a little more would only make him a better Tanker. However, it’d be a waste of SP to put any points into this Series unless you plan on maxing it out. The difference in Physical Defense doesn’t become significant until you get cold mastery up to lvl 60, which will enhable you to get 3rd book lvl 7 ice guard, where the defense given for the buff shoots up from +24 phy defense to +42. At that point, coupled with the Cold Passive, you will be a pretty strong tank and if you decide to get 4th book up in level, you will most certainly will be a Tanking God . Max this out, sooner or later, to be a good Blader.

Cold Wave Series
Image
Completely and utterly useless. It guarantees a Frostbite, as long as the monster isn’t 40 levels above you or something, but the Frost Nova Series is about a hundred times better. Not only does it guarantee a Frostbite, but it also Freezes quite a bit too. More about the Frost Nova Series down a little. But skip this skill completely, it’s a major waste of SP.

Frost Wall Series
Image
The Cold equivalent of the Fire Tree’s Fire Wall Series – except, this time, it absorbs Physical Attack. I don’t recommend putting any points into it, again, seeing as you already have ENOUGH Physical Defense, and it completely immobilizes you, making sure that all your enemy has to do is back off two steps to completely evade your attacks.

Frost Nova Series
Image
A very useful skill – it gives you a chance to freeze your enemy, and if not, will, at the very least frostbite them. The second and third book have an AoE effect, freezing / frostbiting all the enemies around you, and if I may say so myself, the third book looks amazing. Note that you only have to have one point into the first book of this series to unlock the second book – so it’s unnecessary to put more than one point into the first. Max this skill, if not only because it looks so flashy.

Snow Storm Series
Image
The Cold equivalent of the Fire’s Flame Wave Series – a Nuke. Useless, unless you want the second book of the Nuke, which has an AoE effect. While you won’t be doing much damage with it, it could be useful if you want to freeze and frostbite multiple enemies around you. However, I’d still say skip it, because the amount of SP you have to put in to actually make it worth it, could be better spent, again, elsewhere.

Snow Shield Series
Image
This is another new skill added with the other lvl 80 skills. The skill is a buff that lasts about 120 seconds and diverts a certain % of your damage into your mana pool rather than your hp pool. For a pure str character, there is little use in maxing out this skill because pure str characters have a small mana pool.

I would recommend only getting first book of this skill at level 1 because anything passed that won't leave you with much MP to use your other skills.

Cold Armor Series
Image
The Cold Passive that permanently increases your Physical Defense. While you already have enough Physical Defense, I’d say max this out sooner or later, to make your Blader the best tanker it can be. While it’s certainly not a priority, it should be on the list of things to max, sooner or later, after you’re done farming.

Required SP to max mastery to lvl 80, frost guard series to lvl 80, and passive to 80 as well as getting some of the other skills to lvl 1 = 70,994 sp. Adding Cold Force Series = 92,763 sp

Lightning:
The Lightning tree is more of an INT-based Skill Tree. The Lightning Tree, to the INT, is the equivalent of the Fire Skill to a STR – it has buffs that increase INT, while the Fire has buffs that increase STR. While this Skill Tree COULD be skipped if you’re tight on SP, I recommend getting it – while the Piercing Force Buff adds a percent increase to INT-based damage, it still gives you a little boost in damage, with your imbue. And god knows that a Blader should take every little bit of damage than he can.
Not only is this true, but the Lightning Tree has a Buff – Concentration, as well as a Passive, that adds Parry Ratio, furthering a Blader’s defense – which is what the Blader is all about.
Last, but not least, the Lightning Tree has the Grasswalk series.

Thunder Force Series
Image
The Lightning Imbue. While it has Transfer damage, and lowers the enemies Parry Ratio as it’s effect, it’s not worth to max. It has lower damage than fire, and the Parry Ratio decrease isn’t as good of an effect as the Freezing and Frostbiting that Ice gives. Sure, you’ll do a little more damage to your enemy while his Parry Ratio is decreased, but my personal opinion is that it’s better to completely freeze him, so he can’t attack you back, then do a tiny bit more damage to him or her. :P Don’t put any points into this, as you already should have the Fire and Ice imbue.

Piercing Force Series
Image
A buff that increases your Magical Attack – the Lightning equivalent of the Flame Body Series. Although your Magical Balance is low, due to the fact that you’re a Pure STR, this still will increases the damage of your Imbue. Coupled with Flame Body Series, you’ll be doing the max amount of damage that you possibly could do. Don’t make this a priority, but you should max it, without a doubt, sooner or later, as you need all the damage you can get.

Wind Walk Series
Image
An active buff that increases your movement speed. Refer to the Grasswalk section of this Guide for more information. Max this skill, no doubt about it.

Lion Shout Series
Image
An instantaneous “mini-nuke”. While this skill is a purely Magical Attack, and you’ll be doing low damage with it, it IS ranged, and IS an AoE attack. I’ve seen some STR builds, while again, not doing much damage with it, luring multiple monsters towards them with it – this would be the sole purpose of putting points into this skill, but you could do the same thing with the Snake Sword Dance Series. So I’d say, forget this skill.

Concentration Series
Image
A buff that increases your Parry Ratio. Parry Ratio is explained in the Armor Types section of this Guide. Max this skill, as it will enable you to, more or less, take less damage, and be a better Tanker overall. However, once you start getting to third book concentration, the amount of parry you get per skill level IMO is not worth the amount of sp. I would suggest not leveling this up too much after 3rd book concentration since you will only lose about 3-4 bonus parry but you will save around 6k sp in the process.

Thunderbolt Force Series
Image
The Lightning Tree’s equivalent of the Flame Wave, and Snow Storm Series – the Lightning Nuke. There’s absolutely no point to even mess around with this Nuke, as it doesn’t Freeze or Frostbite, nor does it look as cool as the Fire one, if you want to just play around with it. Skip this, as it’s a massive waste of SP.

Heaven's Force Series
Image
The Lightning Passive that increases Parry Ratio. Max this, eventually, although this shouldn’t take priority. It’ll help you, once again, take less damage, though, and as such, be a better Blader.

Required SP to max everything except for lion shout series, thunderbolt force series, and thunder force series = 96,141 sp


Force:
Unless you want to be a Healer / Medic, skip this tree – in no way, shape, or form is the Force Passive, which adds MP, a reason to put 10, 20, 30 points into this tree. The SP could more wisely be spent elsewhere.

Alfred wrote:
Why choose to become a healer? Well, you will play an important role in your guild especially when reaching higher levels. Not everyone chooses to level up the force mastery high enough, because they want to leave room for other skills that fits them better. Having someone focusing on the force tree in the guild then, leaves everyone more freely to choose what they want and not having the pressure of getting the force mastery just to be able to ressurect (bring someone back to life).

Your play style will certainly be more different than the others. Instead of attacking your enemy, you will more likely do your best to support your friends. But if the situation needs it, you will not be a total weak damage dealer and can jump into the heat of the battle knowing you can deal as much as heal.

If you wish to be a Medic / Healer, as a Blader is, although debatable, the best build that you could make to be a Healer, here’s a good guide that you could read up on, by Alfred: Link

Updated as of the Euro update:

Force:
The force tree got a real boost in potential with the new skills. Before this tree was only for those who wanted to sacrifice a skill tree in order to heal and resurrect others with no other benefits, which most people weren't willing to do. Now force offers some good offensive skills since vital spot got some new debuffs as well as other useful things so even though clerics are much better at healing and ressing, you can still be a good Healer/Medic as well as get some good self benefits from force

If you wish to be the Healer/Medic type then you should consider getting this force because with a blader's ability to tank you should be a strong healer.

Self Heal Series
Image
This is a pretty self-explanatory skill. This skill will heal your own hp and casts quickly, which is its only real advantage over Heal Series. I recommend against getting it since you can heal yourself with heal series as well even if the cast time takes longer.

Force Cure Series
Image
This skill is used to cure status alignments on yourself. Before, this skill was pretty useless since universal pills already do the job of curing those statuses and can be used much faster. Now, because of the new status alignments that can be casted on you and the inability for universal pills to cure these status alignments. I wouldn't get this skill because Cure Therapy Series is much more efficient at doing this.

Cure Therapy Series
Image
This skill does the same thing as Force Cure Series, only it works for you as well as everyone else in your party. This makes the skill much more practical than Force Cure Series since you don't need to select anyone to use it, meaning in a PvP situation you wouldn't need to click on yourself before using it so you will not lose target of your foe. This is something worth getting especially if you get sick of people casting debuffs like dull, impotent, division, etc. onto you.

Heal Series
Image
This skill allows you to heal the hp of of any other character or even yourself. If you're the type who likes to be a team player (which is most likely why you're considering this mastery in the first place) then get this skill.

Rebirth Art Series
Image
This skill allows you to resurrect other characters if they ever die. This ability will come into play whenever you’re in group pvp situations or in job pvp situations, or if you’re the type that likes to help out the person who got killed by mobs in pve. If you’re getting force you might as well get this skill and keep it updated. Just remember that you can resurrect someone 10 levels higher than the level of the skill, so try to keep it as up to date as you can.

Natural Therapy Series
Image
This skill puts up a barrier that stops general monsters from going agro (or attacking) you and anyone else inside the circle as well as increases the rate of hp/mp regeneration. For a blader, there's not a real practical use for this skill since the last thing you should be worried about is getting attacked by too many monsters. Also this skill does not stop champions, giants, and elites from attacking you and you need to keep this skill updated in order for it to be effective. IMO this skill can be skipped since it has little use in solo and team play.

Vital Spot Attack Series
Image
These are debuffs that can be casted on either monsters or players and these skills are what give you your offensive benefit in the force tree. There are 5 books for these skills and these are what each one does:
-Vital Spot Muscle: Lowers your opponent's parry
-Vital Spot Spirit: Lowers your opponent's attack rating
-Vital Spot Body: Gives your opponent Decay status (lowers physical defense)
-Vital Spot Mind: Gives your opponent Weaken status (lowers magical defense)
-Vital Spot Zero: Gives your opponent Impotent status (lowers physical and magical attack power)

For Body, Mind, Zero, it is important that you keep this up to grade. If those skills aren't up to grade, your opponent will most likely resist them whenever you try to cast them. Another thing that makes these skills special is their instant cast, so they're much easier to get on an opponent than using skills like Lightning Chain. You should max out every book of this series.

Force Increasing Series
Image
This is a passive skill that increases the amount of MP in your MP pool. Passives are always worth getting and an increase in your mana pool can help with pot usage as well as making snow shield more effective since you're less likely to run out of mp when using it.

Required SP to max all force skills to lvl 80 except for Heal Series, Natural Therapy Series, and Force Cure Series = 107,489 sp

Pacheon?
Note: Originally, this section was not in my Guide, but it's definently something that I think I should take note of. BladeCarlo recommends substituting Ice for Pacheon, which increases Attack Rating by a large amount. However, this comes at the expense of a great loss in Physical Defense that comes from the Ice Tree. It could be argued, though, that a Blader ALREADY has enough Physical Defense, and COULD put points into Pacheon, and not be that much worse off, but as BladeCarlo said,

BladeCarlo wrote:
BTW my build is more on a Damage Blader than a Tanker..


Simply, it'd be substituting the Cold Tree for the Pacheon Tree - something that I've seen other Bladers do as well.
Honestly, though, I wouldn't take this path - Leveling up Pacheon to 70, just for a 40-ish point increase in AR, IMHO, is just not worth it, and at the 90 and 100 Cap (if you plan on playing that far), it'll eventually have to be deleveled.
The Ice, IMHO, is must more useful - the Buff's increasing your Physical Defense by an insane amount, so you become the Tanker that you are, and the Tanker that you're supposed to be. My opinion is just that the Blader is a Tanking class, not a class that's supposed to be a heavy killer - That's the Glavier's job. But there are Bladers that take the Pacheon path, to be able to hit harder, at the sacrifice at the enemy being able to hit harder as well, and your loss of the Freeze / Frostbite ability, which can, certainly, come in handy sometimes. It all depends on your playing style. I'd take this into account when planning your build, as adding points into Pacheon for the AR will definently make you a more offensive Blader, than a defensive one.

BladeCarlo wrote:
i tried pvping a blader same lvl as me,same gap cause he has teh lvl51 combo, i'm still 53 at this moment, he has cold buffs and with sos weapon i forgot if its sos shield or not but his crit is lower than mine he crits like 2k+ on me and i crit 3k+ on him.. BTW we both wear garms.. and my shield doesn't have that critical blue.. ^^





This is a guide by Megaman that shows all the attacks that have any sort of AoE (Area of Effect), including Simultaenous Attacks, Transfers, and Penentrations. While this guide originally showed ALL the AoE-type attacks in the game, I edited it so it only has skills that Bladers may use. Hope you don’t mind, Megaman. :)

Megaman wrote:
Simultaneous Attack

This is where you cast your attack, and the epicenter of the damage is defined at your target. This means that the target you select will be attacked, and within a certain range of the target, other mobs will be damaged.

Acronyms used: FRR= front range radius (the damage radius from the target in metres. SA= simultaneous attack (the maximum number of targets possible, including the original target chosen by you.)

Bicheon:
soul blade force: FRR 2m, SA 3

Cold:
Snow storm ice rain: FRR 6m, SA 5


Transfers

An attack where the strike goes first to your chosen target, then consecutively follows through to another target, from shortest distance from your selected target to longest.

Acronyms used: TR=Transfer range (the range at which it is possible to achieve a transfer) Ts=Transfers (the number of transfers you can have, including the target chosen by you.

Bicheon:
Snake sword dance: TR 7m, Ts 3

Lightning:
Thundertiger force: TR 3m, Ts 2
Thundersky force: TR 4m, Ts 2
Thunderking force: TR 4m, Ts 2
Thunderdragon force: TR 5m, Ts 2

Penetration

When an attack penetrates, the distance (in a line) from you to the mob you are attacking is the spot where mobs will get attacked. There is also hotspots behind you, and to the back-right and back-left of you.

Acronyms used: Ps=Penetrations (how many possible penetrations you can draw from the attack, number includes the original mob attacked) On a side note, dam. -#% means how much percent of the usual damage inflicted gets deducted when it penetrates a mob other than the target mob selected.

Cold:
Frost nova wind: Ps 3, dam. -0% (1 damage hit anyway)
Frost nova storm: Ps 3, dam. -0% (1 damage hit anyway)

Surround Range Radius

This type of attack means that when you target a mob and activate the attack with this attribute, you create a radius around your character which mobs will get attacked if they are in it.

Acronyms used: SRR=Surrounding range radius (the measurement in metres which decides how far out of you the attack will have effect) SA= Simultaneous attacks (how many mobs will get hit, including the targeted mob)

Bicheon
Petal sword dance: SRR 15m, SA 3

Cold
Frost nova woods: SRR 5m, SA 5




Note:
BakaFish wrote:
Just a quick one, your build is using 320/300 masteries. My suggestion (at 80 cap) would be 80 bicheon 80 fire 69 light and 68 cold. I think u have few masteries left after that.


I didn't even notice that. Thanks, Baka.
However, I would take 80 Bicheon, 80 Fire, 80 Ice, and 60 Lightning - only for the reason that I believe Ice is more useful, both in PvE, and PvP, than Lightning. Your Ghost-Walk Phantom is already at a decent Level at 60, and so is your Grass-walk - enough that horses are more or less, useless to you. However, you need to max out the Ice Buffs to have max Tanking ability as a Blader.
- Keep in mind that that's just my opinion. Others will give you different advice.







Mastery Combinations - Weapon and Force [Written by Manowar]

So now that you have an idea on what each skill tree offers, it is time to choose your mastery combinations. You should plan your build to, at cap, be a full 300/300 mastery build (Note: You don’t have to use up all your masteries if you don’t wish to). If you’re not too sure on what would be a workable combo here’s some pros and cons for each one(Note: These are all combinations with Bicheon and Fire to 80. If you like to think outside of the box there are other possible combinations):

80 Bicheon/80 Fire/80 Lightning/60 Ice:
Pros:
IMO this is probably one of the most well-balanced combination of masteries and this is the build that I am doing right now. You aren’t missing out on much since ice at level 60 gives 84 bonus physical defense through passive and the buff as well as you will have the highest amount of movement capability possible short of buying a drug of typhoon. This is for someone who likes to be the fast type.
Cons:
Not as much physical defense as getting ice to lvl 80 and if you’re someone who wants to be an ice kind of person, this will limit the level of what ice skills you want to get.

80 Bicheon/80 Fire/80 Ice/60 Lightning
Pros:
IMO this is another well-balanced combination of masteries. Once again you aren’t missing out on too much since lightning at lvl 60 gives you a 59% increase in speed as well as your concentration and piercing force at a good level. Also with getting ice to lvl 80, you will have an even higher amount of physical defense through the passive and the buff. This is for someone who wants to be a better tank and wants to max out ice skills (like ice imbue).
Cons:
You will lose a small amount of move speed and if you are only getting ice just for the physical defense buff and passive, you could decide it’s not worth your mastery to get it this high. If you need more information on whether or not to do this build check out the Fire vs Ice section.

80 Bicheon/80 Fire/70 Light/70 Ice
Pros:
You’re pretty much getting the best of both worlds so to speak. You have a good amount of physical defense as well as a good amount of move speed and other benefits from light. You can also tweak the balance to something around 80/80/68/72 or anything around that incase you want to get certain skills.
Cons:
Although this works out great for this cap, you may have a problem in future caps since we will be at a 300/300 mastery still, you will have to de level either the ice tree or the lightning tree. This is much easier to accomplish with an 80/80/80/60 build since the 60 build is easier to drop. However, if this isn’t a problem for you, then go for this mastery combination.

80 Bicheon/80 Fire/80 Force/60 Lightning
Pros:
This is a more unique combination of skills. Having force will allow you to be able to heal and resurrect other players and will also give you an offensive edge in pvp. This is probably a more damage dealing based build and, if you’re the type who wants to be the Healer/Medic type, this should be a good combination for you.
Cons:
You will lose a good amount of physical defense because of not having ice, however IMO ice is something you can live without. Also IMO for force to be effective, you need to commit to it as being one of your main masteries.

80 Bicheon/80 Fire/80 Force/60 Ice
Pros:
This is like the last mastery combination, except more for someone who wants to be a better tank as well as be able to be a Healer/Medic type.
Cons:
Not having lightning will make you really slow and dependent on speed increasing potions (like drug of typhoon). Not to mention you won’t have grass walk phantom as well. Like with the last build, you should expect to be committed to force in order to get the most benefit from it.

Other things to consider when choosing a mastery combination:

SP requirements:
The amount of sp required of each build will depend on what mastery trees you’re getting and what skills you are getting. This is important because it will determine how much sp you will need to farm for your character. The sp requirements for each build are listed in the Skill Trees section, but if you want to change up what skills you want to get, you can use http://nivlam.com/char/ to calculate how much sp you need for what you want.

Future Level Caps:
This is something you shouldn’t get too involved in, but you should always have a rough plan on what you will want to do if this cap were to come. The mastery limit will most likely stay at 300/300 skills so if you plan to have a build that is at 300/300 masteries for 80 cap, you will have to de level a skill tree when a future cap comes. This you can do with cursed hearts or the silk bought skill relocation item. However, there’s no telling when the next cap could come so IMO you should plan out your masteries for your current cap and only worry about the next cap when the next cap comes.


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:22 am, edited 14 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:45 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
*Manowar updated

Fire VS Ice

An Overview:
While a Blader should ideally, max out both the Fire and Ice tree (for the buffs), it’s understandable that one may wonder which IMBUE to use. Perhaps this will help.

Fire
Fire Pros:
The Fire imbue deals higher damage than the Ice imbue. It also gives a burn effect, which steadily deals damage over time. However, the damage from the burn effect is negligible – not even worth noticing. Thus, the sole reason for why one would pick the Fire imbue over the Cold imbue is damage.
This being said, while the difference in damage between the Fire imbue, and the Cold imbue at the lower levels may not seem like much, the higher the Mastery Level of the two trees, the more significant the difference will be. At the upper levels, the difference in damage will be more than hundreds.
Fire also looks cooler, IMHO. :)

Fire Cons:
The Fire imbue does not have special effects, really. As said before, the damage from the burn effect is so negligible, that if it wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be missed. Thus, upon the subject of effects due to the imbue, the Ice wins out.


Cold
Ice Pros:
The Freeze and the Frostbite – these two work extremely well in PvE. On top of a Blader’s ability to receive almost no damage from a monster, due to the Blader’s high defense, when a monster is frozen, it’s even less able to deal damage to a Blader, stemming from the fact that it can’t even attack.
In the lower levels, and the middle-levels of PvP, Ice will work EXTREMELY well – a Blader is an even greater tanker than it already is, because of the fact that no one is Ice-immune at those levels. With Cold going, the enemy is struggling to even pull off an attack, because he is either Frostbitten, or Frozen, let alone trying to kill you. While he’s Frozen, the enemy cannot attack. So finish him off.

Ice Cons:
As stated above, the lower damage. I must, however, reiterate the point right now that a Blader is not meant to be a heavy damage-dealing class – it’s meant to be a tanker, and Cold helps it do just that.
However, in regards to PvP, at the higher levels, more and more people become immune to Cold. Thus, they cannot be Frostbitten, or Frozen, and the damage that you are sacrificing by not using Fire is wasted.
I must say, though, the amount of people Ice-immune at the cap is less than what you may think, or people may say – it’s actually a lot less, so Cold still works against quite a few people that you may PvP. So you can continue to annoy the hell out of them.

Requirements For Ice Immunity:
StealMySoda wrote:
As long as you have

Status reduce effect X (counts as a %)
and enough reduce on your acc to add up to 100% you will be immune. Example:


Fire Shield Emperor:
78 Reduce (78%)
Ring 1 - 5%
Ring 2 - 5%
Neck - 10%
Earings - 5%

=103%=Immune


As easy as it may seem to be Ice-immune, you’d be surprised how few people are. So I’d highly suggest leveling up the Ice Imbue.
Keep in mind, as StealMySoda said, that when something – jewelry, buff, gives you “Status reduce effect X”, the X is a percentage. JoyMax and it’s typos. :roll:

Manowar's Accurate Opinion:
Chances are at around cap most chinese builds have ice immunity and if
they don't, it's not hard to get it since ice immunity is possible for
any build with a cleric's help. Ice skills can still be useful if you
do manage to find a foe that lacks ice immunity however that can be
really rare. IMO you should stick to one imbue or the other and fire
is the more practical imbue since you never have to worry about
whether or not your enemy is immune to get the full benefit of it and
the extra damage will help.


Fena's Inaccurate Opinion That You Probably Don't Want To Follow:
As a fully farmed Blader at the 80 cap has maxed both Fire and Ice, I would say, just level up both imbues. In PvE, use Ice. A Blader is meant to be a Tanker, and if you’re on your road to being a Blader, you already know that – meaning you obviously aren’t too concerned about your damage. So use Ice. Freeze the enemy, laugh at them as they can’t attack you, and then, kill them. You’ll save money by using Ice as well.
In PvP, I’d start off with Ice. After a few attacks, you can gauge pretty well if your enemy is Ice-immune or not. If he isn’t, then when your Imbue runs out, simply switch to Fire. It’s as easy as that.


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:45 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
Grasswalk

Grasswalk is a unique skill – unique enough to be given a section by itself.
While on the surface, it seems pretty simple, it’s a pretty important skill. It gives you a percentage increase in your moving speed, and because of this, increases the rate at of which you level.
How, you say?
Let’s do some math, here, now.

Say you take 6 seconds to kill a monster.
And then 4 seconds to move onto the next monster.
It takes you a total of 10 seconds to kill each monster.

Now, take the third book of the Grass Walk Series, which increases your moving speed by more than 50%. Say, though, that it was just 50%.
You’d move onto the next monster in 2 seconds.
That’d be a total of 8 seconds to kill each monster, then.
That’s a 20% increase in leveling speed. Which, in the higher levels, is a millions of EXP increase.

See how useful it can be? :)

Not only does it increase your grinding speed, but it’s quite useful in PvP as well. Because everyone else has Grass-walk as well, it could make all the difference in catching up, and killing, and enemy that’s trying to escape the doom of your blade, or… it could be useful, if your enemy is higher-leveled, for running away from him, as well.
Max this skill, without a doubt.

While the first and third book is this series gives you a percentage increase in movement speed, the second book… well, Moogie can explain that. :)

Moogie wrote:
Ghost-Walk Phantom confuses even high-level players. This skill can seem random and almost uncontrollable unless you know how to use it properly. And many people don't. So allow me to explain, for those who may be confused, or not totally sure on the mechanics.

It's actually very simple. You don't have to be moving or anything. You don't need to have a target, or to click anywhere on the ground before using this skill. THESE ARE LIES!!!!

All you need is... your mouse pointer! Your cursor's position on the screen is the only thing that determines the direction of your zooooom. Point, activate the skill, and zoooom.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who didn't understand Ghost-Walk Phantom. I'm also adding it to my guide. Ciao!


Basically, it teleports you a certain distance in the direction that your mouse is pointing – very useful for running away from a mob, a player, or catching up to one. The higher the level, the further you’ll teleport.


Last edited by fena on Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:46 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
SP Farming

In regards to SP Farming for a Blader, there isn’t a build where it’s MORE necessary to farm for, to be decent. The Ice Tree is a MUST, to be a good Tanker. The Fire Tree is any STR-build’s must, and the Lightning Tree is needed, if not only for the Grasswalk.
And Bicheon couldn’t be more needed.

I would strongly suggest farming all your SP ASAP – this means, at the Bandit Stronghold at Level 16. The reason for this, being, that at Level 16, the damage difference between a Pure STR, and a Pure INTs, is not as significant as the damage difference between the two at Level 80 – thousands. You’ll farm at relatively the same speed, although the damage you’ll be dealing will still be a little lower. Also, you’ll be able to farm with a Bow, instead of having to farm with a Blade, and the ranged attacks will speed up your farming even more.
Also, it has been proven, time and time again, that Level 16 at the Bandit Stronghold is the fastest spot to farm. Period. No exceptions.

You’ll want to read a guide to SP Farming at the Stronghold, as it’s a must to be even a halfway decent Blader. The-Battalion has made an incredible Guide, so be sure to take a look at his.

SP Farming Guide

However, not many people can stand farming 250K+ at the Stronghold, or Den, at 16. If you’re like me, and there’s absolutely no way in hell that you could farm that much at once, so you should split it up. It's generally agreed that the next good farming spot would be at Level 52, at Penons.
Penons have a great spawn, and by then, and while you won't (thanks, Dead3y3) have both your Heaven and Ascension Chains, which come at Level 51, if you have a 9-gap, but you will have the new change of SoX that comes at Level 52 - which, if you get a good one, can speed up your farming speed amazingly.
And besides, that Cornu Blade is damnn sexy. Do I have to say it again? :P

If you have the money, get a monkey, a Premium Ticket (PT), and a Gold Skill Ticket (gST), for sure. Note, however, that a gST, combined with a PT does not give you 400% SXP. It only gives you 300%.

For example:
You normally receive 400 SXP from a mob.
With a gPT, you’ll receive 800 SXP from the same mob.
With a gPT, and a gST, you’ll only receive 1200 SXP, not 1600 SXP.


The next farming spot would be either at the Caves, or the Level 80 Cap, when you can only get SXP, and not EXP anymore.
Note that Niya Snipers have the highest rate of SoSun drops, just in case you want a little bit of that action. :)

Keep in mind, though, that ideally, you could farm at any level. However, I’d farm starting at only the levels where you get your next tier of weapons, so you could get a kickass SoX, which will speed up your farming.

The last option to get all your SP needed, without farming, is just to gap. Keep a good gap, however much you think you need, and you should be fine, in regards to your skills. Getting a gST will definitely help with that.


Last edited by fena on Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:46 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
PvP
*Manowar updated

Basics:
As stated before, it’s often said that a Blader cannot kill a thing in PvP. Because of the low damage that a Blader deals, this may be true against other STR builds, where most PvP’s turn out into a pot fight. But come an INT-based build, though, a Blader SHOULD be able to kill it, due to the INT-based build’s low HP. Still, this may prove tricky, especially if the INT-based build is a Hybrid. And those Nukes hurt. Really hurt.

Skills:
The bread-and-butter of your PvP are your KD’s and Stabs, for obvious reasons – with a Blader’s low damage, you want to incapacitate the enemy as best you can, and then take him out. The wanting to incapacitate your enemy applies to all classes, really, but a Blader has an easier time doing it than others, due to his KD’s.
At the higher levels, you’ll have more Stabs available to you, as your Bicheon Tree’s Mastery level rises, and you unlock the next book – at the current Level Cap, there are 3 Stabs total, and with each KD, if you’re quick enough, you can try to knock in all three stabs at a time. Also in higher levels you will start getting your debuff skills, which are explained in the Skills section for the bicheon tree which help a ton.

At the lower levels, when you only have one KD and one Stab skill available, if the KD fails to knockdown the enemy, due to the cooldown time there is between skills, throw in a quick Chain or two to keep your enemy hopping. Remember that the damage from the Chain is calculated beforehand, and that fact could prove handy in some instances.

Solo Vs Chinese Builds:
The main advantage that a Blader has in PvP is his heavy defense – not his damage. Remember that fact, don’t get cocky, and don’t expect to win in a PvP fight against a Pure STR, unless you have a SoX weapon with a godly Critical – at the Cap, currently, and at other Levels, unless you get an insane amount of Criticals, it’ll be more or less a pot battle when fighting another STR-based build. I decided to break down this pvp section by the two races and the individual builds, so starting with chinese builds (Note, these experiences are with pvp at the lvl 80 cap):
Vs. Pure Str Glaives
Probably the most common build you will pvp against. Your shield advantage will come into play here and chances are you won’t have to worry about a glaiver actually being able to kill you due to the fact a glaivers damage will either be the same or less than yours on him unless he has an equipment advantage. The challenge of this match up, however, is in killing the glaiver which can be difficult due to a glaivers ability to knock back, stun, and dull. Your best bet is to use lightning chain + flying stone smash to lock in the bleed + division status effects and after that going with KD/stabs until you hit a crit or 2 and kill them. Flying stone smash comes into play here whenever you lock in the division status effect after lightning chain and need a quick skill to add in bleed as well and also you’re more likely to get bleed off flying stone smash then you are off lightning chain. This fight takes a bit of patience and time and most often your opponent may decide to give up saying it’s a “pot war”
Vs. Pure Str Bows
This build is much like fighting a glaive, only bows have the advantage of range and critical increases on some of their skills. Critical Parry, which is a blue stat you can add to your shield that reduces the chance of your opponent landing a critical on you, will help out a lot in this battle. Overall you will be using the same tactics as you did vs glaivers in getting your debuffs in then KD/stabs. If you’re HP ever dips due to 2 crits in a row or any other circumstances, try to get some KDs off to give you time to heal.
Vs. Pure Str Bladers
If possible, avoid pvping another blader. Reason is you and your opponent will most likely lack the attack power to kill each other since you are both tanker builds. Even if it is possible for one of you to be able to kill the other, it will take an unrealistic amount of time and luck to get the combination of skills needed.
Vs. Pure/Hybrid Int Spears
This build has some really high damage nukes, however they lack HP and most often will go down after a simple critical or 2. You shouldn’t use lightning chain or any other chain attack in this match up since the only status effect you may need is bleed which is much easier and faster to get off with a flying stone smash. Best not to waste time and just KD/Stab and occasionally use flying stone smash for the bleed effect. Just know that Chinese int classes will most likely use Snow Shield, which can absorb 40%-50% of the damage you do onto them depending on how high they leveled it. As for the hybrid spears, depending on their balance they may be more prone to use melee based attacks than nukes and can take more of a beating than pure ints. You may want to use lightning chain to have debuffs to assist you but you should only use this when you know the damage isn’t enough to kill you after about 3-4 skills in a row but you should stick with the KD/Stab and flying stone smash pattern.
Vs. Pure/Hybrid Int Swords
Kind of the same concept as a pure/hybrid int spear in that they lack HP but the difference is they’re harder to kill than spears in that they have a shield. They tend to not do as much damage as a spear but they can still bring some pain to you. Best strategy is to do KD/Stabs and Flying Stone smashes against them. If they’re a hybrid, which is more likely to find in a S/S user than a pure, don’t be afraid to use lightning chain as most likely a hybrid int S/S will be using lightning chain on you as well as KDs/Stabs. Another thing that makes these builds tricky are snow shield which I explained with spears. Like most int builds though, these guys should be able to go down after a crit or 2 and also block parry, which is a blue stat found on your weapon, will lower the chance of your opponent blocking attacks and will be very useful in this battle.

Solo Vs European Builds
I don’t have too much experience fighting european builds around my level since there are hardly any that are near cap or are capped. Just some things to remember are that, even though they have a 15 second pot delay, they can do some serious damage and will put your tanking abilities to the limit so do not take them lightly since they are very deadly builds to fight. In most cases you’re best killing these guys before they kill you and KD/Stab as well as block should be your best friend here to work their pot disadvantage against them. However some builds can give huge increases in defense to themselves and others so you should watch out for that as well.

Job/Guild Wars:
This is where teamwork is always the key and those who fail to work as a team will lose. This is also where a blader does well since their tanking abilities are put to the test. Think of your role as a support/disabler more than a killer, which isn’t the point of your build since it is to tank. Best way to help out your team is to try the best to make yourself the target for the enemies since you are more likely to survive X amount of characters than any other build. Also you should be helping out by using chains (preferably lightning chain) and any other non KD skills on anyone your team is targeting since you’re not meant to be a damage dealer and your extra hits will help in dropping targets faster (especially the debuffs). Think of the concept of focus firing, which is something I know from playing RTS games in that if you want to drop an army faster, you focus on killing units one at a time rather then letting your units individually target. The principle behind this is an injured unit can still fight, a dead one can’t.

Another important thing to remember is if you’re helping someone kill an enemy DON’T USE KNOCKDOWN MOVES. This cancels whatever attack or attacks your teammates are doing and will give your foe time to heal and it will piss off your team when you keep canceling their attacks. The only exception to this rule is when you’re using KD to save a teammate from an inevitable death or if you’re designated to disable a player from being a threat to the rest of the team. Also remember unlike cape pvp, in guild wars pretty much anything goes short of recruiting people outside of your guild and using mercenaries since the point of a guild war is suppose to be guild vs guild and not guild vs guild + union + everyone else. For job wars it’s pretty much anything goes, especially depending on the stakes. This means don’t be afraid to do stuff like going 2v1 or 3v1 on people or using zerk/scrolls since if people wanted a 1v1, that’s what capes are for.

Like I said before teamwork is the key to these battles and you should be communicating to your team on whom is the primary target, who to attack after that, etc. My guild (PureEntity) has had over 40-50 guild wars and out of those we have only lost a handful of them. This is because we knew how to communicate well and everyone knew their role and mine was mostly as the disabler. Also remember what your build’s strengths are and best use them to help the rest of your team.


Last edited by fena on Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:46 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
PvE

Basics:
In regards to Tanking and Mobbing, the Blader is king of PvE. While an INT-based build dies when mobbed by more than 3-4 monsters that deal Physical attacks, which is roughly 90% of the monsters in game, a farmed Blader can handle an insane amount of mobs at once – tanking through it all. Because of a Blader’s high defense, it will be able to take on monsters many levels above it, something that other builds cannot do. Ideally, a Blader should take on higher mobs than him, because he can take the damage, it gives more EXP, and he spends more time killing the monster, than running around – which is a con for Bladers, since they aren’t ranged. However, this will soak up more potions, which, in turn, soak up more money.
In respect to which Imbue to use, refer back to the Fire VS Ice Section.

Skills:
Chains – the bread-and-butter of your PvE, and very sexy bread-and-butter at that.
KD’s – work well with Giants, and Champions, and if a non-Bicheon user is trying to KS you, which may happen often with a Blader. Be sure to follow up your KD’s with a Stab – or two – or three, or else there’s no use in it.
Soul Cut Series – Very good as a ranged opening move against Giants, or just to lure an enemy towards you. Even if the Soul Cut Blade doesn’t have that good of damage, the Evil Cut Blade has magnificent damage, so keep adding SP until you get it.
Sword Dance Series – An AoE attack, that could be used as a ranged opening move, or to lure multiple enemies towards you as once. Deals some decent damage.

Note that if there are simply too many mobs attacking you at once – which will be more of a problem with Magical-based mobs, than Physical-based mobs – simply Ghost-walk away, pot, and then come back.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:47 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
*Manowar updated

Armor Type:

Image

Cuchulainn got it right:

Cuchulainn wrote:
Armor/Protector/Garmet

Armor
Great for leveling and hunting monsters that do physical damage. Your defense is pretty much godly with armor+shield, but magic attacks will hit you very hard.

Protector (Recommended)
Good balance of physical and magical defense, but doesn't shine in either category unless you have lots of high + or Seal items.

This is what I'm currently using. One piece is a 47 SOS +5 chestpiece which greatly helps. I was planning on switching to garmet before I found this. Currently I have a full 7th degree SOS protector set and all I can say is WOW! I can tank just about anything near my level. Yetis barely scratch me and I can tank multiple 52+ without dying.

Garmet (Recommended)
This is what most people recommend for blade users. Great magical defense to survive in PVP against nukers, but physical defense is much lower than protector or armor. The low physical defense doesn't come into play very much because a majority of glavies and blade users (STR builds in general) use garmet so they have the magical defense to survive against nukers in PVP

Accessories
Get the best your can. Higher absorbtion means less damage. Also, if you can find high level frost reduce, you're lucky and can become immune to ice with enough % reduction. Low level jewelry with frost is useless because you'll take much more damage, so it's better to get frozen but not take as much damage and just call a friend to help kill the person. Also you can't get frozen when they're knocked down.


However, he forgot to note that when wearing a full set of Garment, it gives you a 20% reduction in MP usage, and gives you a 20% increase in move speed over Armor.For example, a skill usually takes 100 MP. With a full set of Garment on, it only takes 80 – very useful to Bladers, because of their low MP.
Protector gives you a 10% reduction in MP usage, and a 10% increase in move speed over Armor.
Note that you can mix Protector and Armor, but you can’t mix either of them with Garment. Garment, you have to wear with Garment. Protector and Armor, you can mix and match.
I find Garment the most aesthetically-pleasing, as well. :)

The Aspects of Armor:

Image

*Note: Although I say some item blues are very important, you really should wait until 7th degree gear to do full alchemy on your gear since, for all degrees below that, you will most likely use a piece of gear and finish it in a relatively short amount of time.

Physical and Magical Defense: This is pretty self explanatory. The more defense you have, the less damage you take. You can increase the phy and mag defense your gear has through alchemy with elixir enhancements, as in getting it to +1, +2, +3, etc. and also by adjusting the percents next to the stat. Elixir enhancements are more explained in the Blade and Shield aspect of the guide

Durability: This aspect determines how long you can grind or do anything outside of the town before your gear gets low in durability or breaks. In lower levels chances are you won’t have to worry too much about this stat if you repair every time you head into town. However in the higher levels, you will be outside of town in grind sessions for much longer than you would be at lower levels and at higher levels and also mobbing will cause more mobs to be attacking you at one time. In those levels you should try to get the durability increase blue on all your gear.

Parry: Something About Parry:

Kagenutto wrote:
Each piece of armor in SRO has a parry rate listed on it. The higher armor sets have higher rates. What parry does in SRO is not like the parry rates of other games. It does not stop incoming attacks. Instead, it deflects the damage range of an incoming attack.

At this point if you read the above sentance you might be wondering what the hell I'm talking about. Well lets have an example.... In this example we'll use two opponents, an Attacker and a Defender.

An Attacker is using a weapon with a physical damage range of 100-150. If the defender was wearing no armor at all and this was a rather static environment, the damage dealt would fall somewhere inbetween 100 and 150 for each attack made. The average damage would be 125 in a perfect world. If the defender is wearing armor that gives a physical resistance of say 50, then the damage recieved would be reduced by 50 points. This makes the damage range of the attacker now 50 to 100 with an average hit of 75. Still so far, this is pretty basic.

Now SRO throws us a curve ball by implementing is own special brand of Attacking Rating and Parry Ratio. These two numbers are compared for each attack made by the attacker and the defender. Based upon the comparison the average damage is "shifted" in one direction or another. Still using the above example, we'll add Attack Rating and Parry Ratio into the mix. If the Attacker has a rating of 100 and the defender has a parry of 100 then the average damage would remain 75. Now, if the defender had aparry skill of 150 compared to an attack rating of 100 then the average damage would slide down to 50 damage. This isn't getting rid of the damage range of the attacker. It is still 100 to 150 minus 50 armor so 50 to 100. Hits for 100 are still possible. However, when a hit is made, a random roll occurs. The roll is the "weight" of the difference between attack rating and parry ratio. If the roll is in favor of the defender, the damage that would normally occur is instead reduced but never exceeds the minimum. If the roll is in favor of the attacker the damage is increased but does not exceed the max damage. If the Parry Ratio is higher then that random roll is going to occur more often favorably for the defender. If the attack rating is higher, then it is going to occur more favorably for the attacker. Just think of a shifted bell curve from statistics.

The effect of having a higher parry ratio is rather astounding in the low levels when the physical resistance between Garments and Armor sets are very minimal. A full set of Small Linen Garments will have a physical resistance of around 24.7 if bought directly from the store. A full set of Infantry Bronz Armor of the same level will have a resistance of 30.1ish. That 5.4 points of damage reduction is not that much of a difference to out weigh the benefits of Garment armor at lower levels. At higher levels, the difference becomes great enough that for melee users, going with protector or armor will severly cut down on the damage recieved by physical sources.


Physical and Magical Reinforce: This aspect is what allows a blader to be able to wear gear like garmets and still have a good amount of physical defense (which is why I’d recommend getting garmet). The bonus phy and mag defense you get from the reinforce is determined by the amount of str and int you have overall. The formula for calculating this, given by Sylhana, is

Sylhana wrote:
For phy defense total = add all phy defense value (armor, shield) + add all phy reinforce value (armor, shield) x your str stat / 100.

Do the same for mag defense, but use int stat.


Str and Int: These are very important blues to add and they should be on all your gear pieces at higher levels. Adding these stats will give you an increase in the amount of HP/MP you have, the amount of damage you do, and a minor increase in your defense which can make a big difference if you have this stat on all your pieces.

HP and MP increase (Only on Hoods/Hats, Legs, and Chest pieces): This is another aspect of armor that you should have on your hood/hat, leg, and chest pieces for obvious reasons. The increase in HP will help your tank ability while the MP, though not as important, will help increase your mana pool.


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:20 am, edited 3 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:47 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
*Manowar updated

The Blade & Shield

Image

Cuchulainn wrote:
The most important pieces of equipment are the Shield and Blade.
You live and die by these two things so it's important to invest in good equipment.


The Blade

Cuchulainn wrote:
Damage is lower on blades than a similar glavie so you want to find a decent one. Critical of 7 or higher is generally considered very good. However, blue str increases will help as well. Attack rating is also important. Since blade has lower damage, you want to be able to do your max damage as much as possible.


Cuchulainn (can you tell I admire him? :P) is certainly right. With a Blader’s low damage, you’ll want a good Blade, at the very least to make up for it – keep in mind that a Critical on a Blade is one of the most important things. Criticals make all the difference in a PvP, and a good Critical can also significantly speed up PvE. Keep in mind, when looking for an SoX weapon, that Critical will be higher than an NPC weapon of the same Level. You should aim for atleast a 7-9 Critical, when looking for an SoX weapon. 10-11 is decent at the higher levels.

The Aspects of A Blade:

Image


Physical Attack: The most important aspect of the Blade – you want to aim for as high of a percentage on the right as you can possibly get. 100% is the max, although I’ve only seen 2 of those in my entirety of playing SRO. Know that 0% is the lowest Physical Attack that your Blade, at it’s current status, can have. 100% is the max. However, if you + your Blade, or if your Elixir fails, and it goes back down to +0, the Physical Attack’s range will change.

For example.
You have a Level 8 Blade +3, with stats: 110-180 (20%).
This blade could possibly go up to 150-190 (100%).
And at the lowest, 90-140 (0%).

You try to use a weapon elixir on the blade, and it succeeds. The new range would go up. Your percentage, if you haven’t used a stone on it, would still be at 20%, but the range would increase.
Now it would be (for example), a Level 8 Blade +4, with stats: 122-182 (20%).
This blade could possibly go up to 163-201 (100%).
And at the lowest, 99-147 (0%).

Then you try to use another weapon elixir on the blade, and it fails. Thus, if you didn’t have an Astral on it, it goes back to +0, and your Blade’s Physical Attack Range completely changes again.
Now it would be (for example), a Level 8 Blade +0, with stats: 102-152 (20%)
This blade could possibly go up to 143-174 (100%).
And at the lowest, 98-143 (0%). – Keep in mind, though, that since this Blade is at +0, and the Physical Attack is at 0%, this is the LOWEST Physical Attack that the Blade could possibly have.

In conclusion, the higher your Physical Attack %, the more damage you’ll do, basically. So try to get it as high as possible.

Magical Attack: This is not as important as the Physical Attack, but because you’ll be using Imbues, it’d still be a good idea to have this as high as possible. However, this does not take priority. Once again, 100% is the max, and 0% is the lowest, and the same rule applies to Magical Attack, as it did to Physical Attack.

Critical: Another very important aspect on your Blade and probably the most important – the Critical can make all the difference between a kill, and simply damaging the enemy. When fighting an INT, two Criticals in a row should normally do the job. Note that only Weapon Skills can Critical, along with normal attacks. Attacks from the Force Trees, such as Nukes, cannot Critical, although I don’t see why you would be using a Nuke in the first place. :wink:
The higher your Critical, the better you’ll do – 7-8 is considered a good Critical, and anything over that is awesome. On a lower-leveled weapon, a Critical of 10+ on a Blade is godly, although that should be around the norm for a pimped-out weapon of a higher-level weapon. This Blade has a Critical of 13, which is at 100% of it’s value, meaning it can’t go any higher. On Seal of Star/Moon/Sun items, the default critical a blade has is higher and the maximum value is higher as well.

Attack Rating: The higher your AR, the more of a chance you’ll be hitting closer to the higher end of your damage range, than to the lower end.

Ex.
Your damage range on an Earth Taoist is 400-600.
With a higher AR, you’ll hit closer to 600, than 400.
With a lower AR, you’ll hit closer to 400, than 600.

Cuchulainn wrote:
Attack rating is also important. Since blade has lower damage, you want to be able to do your max damage as much as possible.


You should also try to get the attack rating increase blue to the highest value that you can.

INT & STR: Be sure to add STR and INT bonuses to your Blade. On this Blade, there’s 4 INT, and 4 STR – 8 Stat Points in total, which is equivalent to 2.6 Level’s of Stat Points (not including the 2 that are already added for you). These could prove to make all the difference, coupled with the STR and INT that you should already have on your Armor.

Durability Increase: While this isn’t a priority, it definitely is something that you want to add. Higher Durability on your weapon will allow you to be out on the grind for longer periods of time. When you’re in the Caves, or in Taklamakan, where town isn’t as close as just outside the walls of the cities, such as Mangyangs are, going back especially to fix your weapon is time-consuming.

* Physical & Magical Reinforcement was suggested to be added by XemnasXD - Thanks. :) Forgot the importance.

Blocking Ratio: Also known as Anti-Block. This blue reduces the chances of your opponent blocking your attacks when they have a shield. This is a very important blue since you are guaranteed in pvp to run into another player using a shield, either if they’re a sword/shield or blade/shield or if they’re any other build who uses shield when you knock them down (which is common at higher levels).

Physical & Magical Reinforce:

NuclearSilo wrote:
Tallrik wrote:
"Phys reinforce affects how fast durability will go down on your weapon when using Phys. Attacks, and Mag Reinforce works the same way on mag. attacks"


false

Quote:
str is about physical aspect. The higher, the better your crits, physical resistance, physical damge, life span.

int is about magical aspect. The higher, the better your magic attack, magical resistance, and mana span.


false

and all are false.......

Phy/Mag have nothing to do with durability, but with your stat base. It's the bonus of damage added when u equip your weapon. Here is an exemple :
Image
Image

The mag power of my blade 56+3 is 705. With a mag reinforce 166.3%, and with 207 Int comes from my build, the bonus mag power when equip the weapon is 207*166.3%=344.2. So my final power when equip the weapon is 705+344.2=1049.2.

mag power (when weapon equiped) = mag power (weapon) + mag reinforce (weapon) * Int

Same with phy reinforce but apply with str.
Same with reinforce for defensive equip

PS: The mod are noobs, always tell something that they dont even have proof :D

just kidding .....


Something I forgot to mention - but definently worth mentioning. Once again, XemnasXD, thanks. :)



The Shield
People often overlook the fact that the Shield is actually another piece of Armor – instead, they focus just on the BR, and the block that a shield gives. While the Block is VERY IMPORTANT, don’t ever forget that the Shield is another piece of armor in itself, and because of the Shield, you’re an even MORE amazing Tanker. You’ll take even LESS damage, and you’ll block the occasional attacks.

Cuchulainn wrote:
This is what sets blade users apart from glavies. A good shield is one that has a block ratio of at least 15 or more. 17 and higher will cost you a large amount, but it's worth it.
A shield without any + that has good block ratio is better than spending money on a +3 low block ratio. Shield elixers come cheap since only blade and sword users need them.

The shield I'm using right now has block ratio of 15, str 1 increase and +5.


Believe me when I say that a Shield’s BR can either make or break a Blader. Too often, playing on my Hybrid Spear, have I ALMOST been able to finish off a Blader, when on my final attack, he blocks it, and is able to pot through it all – and then ends up killing me. Similarly, when playing my Blader, and fighting an S/S, too often have I knocked him down, and come in for the killing Stab, when he blocks my Stab, stands up, and I have to rinse and repeat the process – wasting a lot of time.
Try to find a Shield with a BR of 15-17, at least. Anything higher is very good, and 20+ is godly. With a shield, you get what you put in – it may cost you a bit of money to + your shield, and change it’s BR, but in the end, it’s all worth it. That BR may block a Critical from a Bowman’s Strongbow that may have Criticaled, and killed you. Similarly, the Shield’s block, and extra defense saves you pots and money when in PvE. Invest in a good Shield, and you’ll be much better off as a good Blader.

The Aspects of A Shield:

Image

BR: The Block Ratio of the Shield. This number is another type – it’s supposed to be a percentage. For example, this shield has a BR of 20. This means, in a perfect environment, this shield will block 1/5 of the attacks against it.

Critical: The higher your Critical on your Shield, the less likely someone is to Crit on you. This is very important and it’s something you should try to max out since it will help out your tank ability versus strength based classes.

INT & STR: KEEP in mind that this is another amazing aspect of having a Shield, one that most people forget – you can add even more INT and STR. This is a major advantage over Glaviers, or non-shield users in specific, since they don’t have a Shield of which they can add more INT and STR stat points to. So always make good use of this, and be sure to try to add atleast a few INT and STR points to your shield.



Note: These are the most important Aspects of the Shield and Blade. For a complete list, you could refer to EllisD's Guide, the best I've seen on this so far.


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:20 am, edited 6 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:47 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
Manowar's Personal Thoughts

Image

Ever since I started this build when the server Greece opened I almost never regretted making it. It's a very fun build to have and the ability to tank just about anything is worth the grind. For those who may tell you you shouldn't become a blader on reasons either "they can't kill" or anything else just remember in making your build it's not what someone else thinks, it's what you think of the build. Also, in my opinion, the potential of a blader will only get better in the future caps since bladers will be getting the 4th book stab at lvl 90, which allows a blader to quad stab someone as well as plenty of other factors.

Some other things to remember when leveling, the journey itself is more important than the destination. Don't wait until you hit cap to have fun and there are plenty of ways to have fun without being capped. Best thing you can do is to find a nice guild who can help in motivation as well as being able to chat with them as well as doing other fun activities. Coming from a capped player I can tell you that being at cap would be way more boring if I didn't have a guild or friends in game since there isn't too much to do at cap and it's easy to get bored. Also remember to stay legit as it doesn't matter if someone is at XX level and you're not. It's best to go at your own pace and not to be concerned about hitting a certain level in a certain amount of time, which is what I did. If you have a problem with this you should find a nice legit guild who will help in that.


Fena's Personal Thoughts & Miscellaneous:
All things said in this section are my thoughts, and my personal opinions and thoughts myself. None of them are proven, to the best of my knowledge, and most of this is just something that I’d like to say.

First of all. The SEXIEST DAMN WEAPON IN THE GAME: :)

Image

Sexy, isn’t it? That’s BladeCarlo, BTW, another SRF member. It’s under the Screenshots section of SRF. He’s cool.
Second of all, I want to express my admiration for any Blader that’s past Level 64. The time that it takes to get to that Level, as a Blader, is simply stunning. Bladers level the slowest out of any build, and class in the entire game, and personally, I didn’t have the patience to do something like that. So my hat goes off to any of you guys out there – you have my ultimate respect. And IMHO, Bladers are the coolest class in the game, so the payoff for the slow leveling is worth it. You get what you put into this game.

Second of all, I’d like to say that Bladers would make excellent Hunters, IMHO, as well. Coupled along with an experienced Trader friend, no Thief your level should be able to kill your friend’s Horse or Camel. When a Thief comes, you can distract him, while the Trader takes off – and distract him you will. He won’t be able to kill you, and although you might not be able to kill him either, the point isn’t really to kill him – it’s to make the trade successful. He won’t be able to kill you, and while you’re KDing him, he won’t be able to chase after your Trader friend either. :)

The Pure STR Ice Blader is original badass. Represent! :P

For You Noobs :P


Manowar's Special Thanks:

I would like to first thank my guild PureEntity and also the PureEntity union since without them I probably wouldn't of stuck to my character for this long and I wouldn't know what to do without them. Would also like to thank all my friends and buddies on the Greece server, which I can't list all the names for since there's so many but you guys should know who you are. Also would like to thank Cuchulainn whose guide I originally used in making my blader when I was starting out back in may last year.


Fena's Special Thanks
First and foremost, I’d like to thank the SRF Community, and if you’ve taken the time to read this guide, more specifically, you. This community is great, and even though I’ve almost officially quit SRO until Europe comes out, I stick around SRF, sometimes to help out, sometimes just to have a few laughs in the OTL, because the SRF Community is amazing.
Secondly, I’d like to thank the people that I’ve quoted: Cuchulainn, who was my inspiration when I was just a noobie – whatever happened to him? StealMySoda, Alfred, Temptation, kagenutto, Bladecarlo, Megaman, Bakafish, PureOwnage, The-Battalion, and anybody else that I may have quoted.

- Edit -
I'd especially love to thank Manowar, who is taking on the enormous task of editing this Guide. He's written and updated everything past the Euro update. I don't even know what's going on anymore. Everything and anything useful you see here, is due to him. So keep that in mind. :]





:!: - A Work In Progress – :!:
If you see anything wrong, or think there’s something important that I’ve forgotten to add, please leave a message here, or send a message to Manowar's SRF Inbox. He / I will update it ASAP, and of course, leave props for it. Thanks!


Last edited by fena on Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:20 am, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:15 am 
my new link (w/ fly's) for dumba** blader questions


Last edited by shadowman20875 on Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:50 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
shadowman20875 wrote:
my new link (w/ flies) for dumba** blader questions


Rofl, thanks. :P

Flies?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:52 am 
Active Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 820
Location:
Olympus
Very nice work man :) Keep it up!

Maybe you should have posted this in the "Characters Skills" Section of the SRO Forum ;)

_________________
Image
Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:03 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
bloodinator wrote:
Very nice work man :) Keep it up!

Maybe you should have posted this in the "Characters Skills" Section of the SRO Forum ;)


Thanks!

But this is the Guides Tutorials Section. :P


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:55 am 
Loyal Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1839
Location: Hell.
Nice and complete guide.
Though you won't escape of noob stupid questions... usually the most annoying people who ask for help are those who read the least and making this guide so long will make them unwilling to read...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:18 am 
Active Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 820
Location:
Olympus
I read the whole thing ^^. Very helpful indeed :D

_________________
Image
Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:27 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
HyorunmarouZ wrote:
Nice and complete guide.
Though you won't escape of noob stupid questions... usually the most annoying people who ask for help are those who read the least and making this guide so long will make them unwilling to read...


It's okay, I'll be ready to answer those noob questions.

Thanks, HyronumarouZ, and bloodinator. Appreciate it. :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:27 am 
Senior Member
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4590
Location:
Off Topic
Wow. The detail is just outstanding. Too bad I'm an S/S. I'd be so glad if someone does the same guide like yours.

:love:


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:33 am 
Veteran Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 3358
Location: EU-Kor'gall
Just a quick one, your build is using 320/300 masteries. My suggestion (at 80 cap) would be 80 bicheon 80 fire 69 light and 68 cold. I think u have few masteries left after that.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:38 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
Prophet Izaach wrote:
Wow. The detail is just outstanding. Too bad I'm an S/S. I'd be so glad if someone does the same guide like yours.

:love:


Thank you. Appreciate it. :)
I was actually contempalating making a detailed Nuker guide in General - actually started on it halfway, but then switched to Blader. Really wanted ot update Cuchulainn's thread, as I haven't seen any other Blader guide around.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:41 am 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
BakaFish wrote:
Just a quick one, your build is using 320/300 masteries. My suggestion (at 80 cap) would be 80 bicheon 80 fire 69 light and 68 cold. I think u have few masteries left after that.


You're right, I didn't even realize that at first.
I'll note your suggestion. Thanks a bunch! :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:47 am 
Frequent Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1116
Location:
Athens
w00t~ this deserve a Sticky :D


thnx that u like my screenshot.. :D

EDIT:
My alternate Build: Hawk Blader (Hawk instead of Cold) :D
http://bobtheveg.dyndns.org/SRO/Char_Bu ... file=19010


any comments???

BTW my build is more on a Damage Blader than a Tanker.. :D

_________________
Image
Happiness is Just a word to me..
Image
http://shadowsdie.deviantart.com/


Last edited by bladecarlo on Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:57 am 
Banned User
Offline

Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 940
Location:
Xian
Omfg. This is a very detailed guide. Although I don't really like Bladers. If I wanted to build one, this is where I would go. Very impressive. 10/10!

_________________
<<banned from SRF for bot admittance. -SG>>


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:30 am 
Hi, I'm New Here
Offline

Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 2
I have one question. How are you supposed to farm at lvl 52 on Penons with your new chains (mast. lvl 51) when you have 9 lvl gap? :shock:

Just thought I'd point that out. :)

Also, about Firewall. In my opinion it's worth to get level 1 of the first book. It's very cheap, and although the Mag. HP is not that great. It can take the first nuke of any strength.

Other than the first farming point. Good guide.

_________________
-Deªdë¥ë-


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:06 pm 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4599
Location: Studying Computer Science, Vienna
You put alot of work into the guide, fact for which you have my appreciation.
But you should have mentioned more about the 90 cap trees/tactics.
In 6 months, it's highly likely that the guide becomes obsolete. Consider these facts. Thumbs up, and keep it coming :)

_________________
Carry your cross, and I'll carry mine.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:13 pm 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
Dead3y3 wrote:
I have one question. How are you supposed to farm at lvl 52 on Penons with your new chains (mast. lvl 51) when you have 9 lvl gap? :shock:

Just thought I'd point that out. :)

Also, about Firewall. In my opinion it's worth to get level 1 of the first book. It's very cheap, and although the Mag. HP is not that great. It can take the first nuke of any strength.

Other than the first farming point. Good guide.


Oh, thanks! I totally forgot about that. I'll edit it right now, and throw in your comment about the Fire Wall as well. Thanks :).

bladecarlo wrote:
w00t~ this deserve a Sticky :D


thnx that u like my screenshot.. :D

EDIT:
My alternate Build: Hawk Blader (Hawk instead of Cold) :D
http://bobtheveg.dyndns.org/SRO/Char_Bu ... file=19010


any comments???

BTW my build is more on a Damage Blader than a Tanker.. :D


Thanks, Blade. :P I'll add a tiny addition about that - I know that in fact, quite a few Bladers put points into Pacheon... personally, I never really saw the point in raising one Tree's Mastery Level 70 Levels, just to get a hawk... but, if people do it, guess it must work. :P

How would you say it's effectiveness is? The AR just makes you hit harder... the higher end of your damage range - but doesn't really INCREASE your damage. So how does it work doing that?


@ Penguin, thanks. Appreciate it. :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:26 pm 
Frequent Member
User avatar
Offline

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1116
Location:
Athens
i dunno... i just thought that if i can max my damage and max my crit i can pawn lvls 4+ higher than me and i can still tank cause i have my shield.. :D and i can 1 combo an int char too.. :D


i tried pvping a blader same lvl as me,same gap cause he has teh lvl51 combo, i'm still 53 at this moment, he has cold buffs and with sos weapon i forgot if its sos shield or not but his crit is lower than mine he crits like 2k+ on me and i crit 3k+ on him.. BTW we both wear garms.. and my shield doesn't have that critical blue.. ^^

_________________
Image
Happiness is Just a word to me..
Image
http://shadowsdie.deviantart.com/


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:38 pm 
Ex-Staff
User avatar
Offline

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 4441
Location: Life
bladecarlo wrote:
i dunno... i just thought that if i can max my damage and max my crit i can pawn lvls 4+ higher than me.. :D and i can i combo an int char too.. :D


:P How's that coming along? BTW, aren't you Level 64+? I was browsing through the SS's, and saw one that you submitted of yourself holding a Blaze Blade - don't know if it was a picture of your own character, though.

- Edit -
I added the Pacheon section. It's below Force in the Skill Trees Section. Read it over, and I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what you think I should add to it.
Thanks for your help, Blade! :)

Stress wrote:
You put alot of work into the guide, fact for which you have my appreciation.
But you should have mentioned more about the 90 cap trees/tactics.
In 6 months, it's highly likely that the guide becomes obsolete. Consider these facts. Thumbs up, and keep it coming


Thanks. :)
True, it doesn't have much about the 90 Cap, or the Legend updates, but right now, I don't know when those are coming, in what order, or anything, really, about them, except for that they're already there in kSRO. However, by the time it comes to iSRO, it could be different, or changed, or anything could have happened to them, and I don't want to put anything into my Guide that isn't concrete, yet. However, anything that comes at the 90 Cap won't change a Blader's build drastically, except that he might want to take Cold down a little, to add into Fire and Bicheon, for the new Chains and Buffs.

I'll throw in a Link to Key-J's Future Updates Thread for anybody that doesn't know its there, to check it out. The 90 Cap doesn't change the 80 Cap's effectiveness, or have any effects upon the Blader's current 80-Cap Build. When the 90 Cap comes out, though, you can count on my updating this thread ASAP. :)
Thanks.


Last edited by fena on Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:50 pm 
great guide.

worth a sticky in the char&skill guides topic.

maybe the mods should indeed move this one to c&s.


Top
  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 188 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 7  Next

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group