[GUIDE] Full Str Blader

I take the guide from here

http://www.silkroadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=43909

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. Don’t put any points into this, as you already should have the Fire and Ice imbue.

Piercing Force Series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.