C9 Blademaster Guide

Blademaster PvP Guide

General Overview
Pros:

- Fast movement speed
- Decent combo connectors
- One of the strongest stun-lock combos
- Good class-specific buff (30 secs of +ms/as goodness)

Cons:

- Very bad skill judgement(meaning bm's dont have many invincibility/superarmor/semi-superarmor moves)
- Strength growth is indeed very high, but overall low skill % damage causes
Blademasters to have low-average damage output overall
- No dot(damage over time) that goes through armor, no enchants to increase damage output
- Almost no guard breaking moves
- Low physical defence for a melee class, abysmal magic defense.

Skill Build and Explanation
There are no set skill build, but many blademasters follow a generic skill build
with some deviations. I will explain the skill build at lvl 63, the current max lvl.

MASTER THESE SKILLS, NO IF'S OR BUT'S

Evasive Dash: Need I say more?

Thrust Kick: Primary damage dealing move, use soley as a combo connector. Superarmor startup frames, but not noticeable.

Press Kick: Good skill, invincible startup frames(when you turn your body) and apercent chance to guard break/stun opponent!
Increased skill
level decreases startup delay; you can def. notice that lvl 20 press kick activates way faster than lvl 1 press kick. Use as stunlock combo starter
into tachyon or grab

Counter Smash: Block into counterattack. Pretty cool skill design, insane damage, but really really slow recovery. The actuall skill consists of 3 hits: normal-stun-stun so if the opponent is fast enough he can use evasive dash/attack on the first normal hit to negate the stun effect of counter. Stunlock combo starter into tachyon or grab

Tachyon Smash: Insane damage stunlock combo. Use only after landing the stun on press kick or counter smash. Using after shining cutter is iffy... You can use break cancel to cancel the last hit to continue into a grab combo. Superarmor while active.

Shining Cutter: Small invincible frame, mid-range stun move. Use it primarily to counterattack (use the invinc frame to negate opponent's attack, and land the actual hit). Chain into press kick-tachyon or press kick-grab.

Flash Strike: Iffy guard break, but good range. Max this as maxing it increases range. Pretty significant recovery time too, so work hard on getting this to hit.

Break Cancel: You can cancel various moves with right click

Cancel Attack Dash: You can cancel your regular attack and move without delay, use primarily for chasing

Back End Upper: Primary combo starter. Invincible frames going back and coming out. Did I mention that you can play mind games with it? By controlling your pov, you can actually move forwards twice/different directions. Chain into press kick-assault smash. All in all the move that I use the most as a blademaster.

Assault Smash: Primary damage dealing move. In addition to chaining this from back upper, use it to launch grounded opponents. If charged, it gains guard frames while moving forwards, but damage decreases significantly. Use the charged version after landing rising attack or evasive attack.

Grab Strike: Guaranteed 3 hits, can connect to air juggle with assault smash/bash. You can do a lot of things with fighter grab.

Deep Wind Step: Small invincible frame on startup, no armor while running, superarmor on recovery. Best secondary damage dealer, and downs opponents too. If you're good with control, you can hit opponents 5-7 times before downing them.

All passives except for the 45 lvl passive and critical chance, since crit can easily be gotten by gear.

Preference (1-max depending on your preference):

Attack Stance: If you use your normal attack a lot, max, if not, don't max

Thrust Gain: Guaranteed hit if thrust kick hits, launches opponents into air. Good combo connector, and decent damage, I gave around 9. Increased level increases launch height, so you might want to find a height that you're comfortable with.

Round Swing 1:Superarmor frames(very unreliable), increased range when maxed. Has slight stun; use break cancel towards the other direction-grab.

Rapid Attack One: Slightly longer range than normal attacks, decent damage.

Burning Spirit: Increases +ms/as as you level, if ms is important to you(it is really important to me), max it. If not, spend more points to increasing your damage.

1 Point Wonders:

Back Hit Grab: Good countering move. Has Guard judgement+grab judgement.

Target Guard: Smaller recovery than counter smash, you can cancel into normal attack if you successfully block.

Storm Wheel Wind: Full superarmor, no armor on the recovery tho. Easily countered if opponent has evasive attack/dash.

Moonlight Cutter: Full superarmor, even on recovery. If you get 3 charges, it can guard break too. However, you cannot move while casting this, so you're vulnerable to ranged moves/shadow dash.

Ground Cutter 1,2,3: Decent ranged skill, not worth putting any more points though. Ground cutter 3 can down the opponent, but in pro matches people rarely get hit.

Rapid attack 2,3: Just 1 please.

Bash 2,(maybe bash 3): Just 1 please.

Bound crash:Put 3 into this, since this is the minimum height required to connect that juggle. If you want to be safe with low as, put around 5. Slow activation/recovery, so only use during combo!

Combos

Combos are the core damage dealing mechanisms of blademasters. The thing to keep in mind is that after 7 hits, damage will decrease, down to 30% of the damage normally dealt when combo count is around 20. Thus, since only the first 7 hits will hit for the full amount of damage, it is important to concentrate the damage dealing moves to the front of the combo. Remember that the primary damage dealers are assault smash/thrust kick for blademasters.

Basic combo:

Back upper -> press kick -> assault smash -> Bash 1, 2 -> Thrust kick/gain -> grab.

Grab -> assault smash -> 1 normal hit -> Thrust kick/gain -> Bash 1, 2 -> 3 normal hits -> grab

Ground combos:

Bash 1, 2 -> Thrust kick/gain -> 3 normal hits -> assault smash -> grab

Assault smash -> 1 normal hit -> Thrust kick/gain -> bash 1, 2 -> 3 normal hits -> grab

PvP Styles:

For blademasters, there are a couple of different PvPstyles.

First, there's the "charge" style, where you basically get close to the opponent as fast as you can and disrupt his moves with the normal attack (yes, blademaster's normal left click attack is the fastest with shadow's normal left click) and the skill chains that I described above. The key here is to never let your opponent catch their breath. I found this style to be particularly useful against shadow/assassin/rangers.

The second style is the "fake" style, where blademaster stays just out of the opponent's range, and uses his superior movement speed and precise timing on target guard/counter smash to lure out opponent's moves and attack on the recovery. This style requires in depth knowledge of your opponent's class as well as your own class, since you need to properly utilize your invincible moves and need to know when the recovery times of the opponents are. I personally use the "fake" style in most of my matches, and I'd say most other top ranking blademasters PvP based on the "fake" style, changing only to the "charge" style briefly to mix things up a bit.

However, just keep in mind that PvP style is ever evolving; if some different style fits you, go on and develop that style.

All credits for this guide to to Aphonia (HermesNight)