Blade Master PvE Wiki (by OniOfTheSword)

The goal of this document will be to hopefully serve as a one stop shop for beginner and experienced Blade Masters alike. This document will bring together information about all the aspects of BM PvE for current content on NA/EU. Some 6v6 details are included as well.

NOTE: Check the Outline on the left of the document (on PC) or brought up on mobile using the options menu for a quick overview of what’s covered in this document. The outline can also be used for quick navigation between sections and subsections.

NOTE 2: Opinions on builds/gear have been formed after testing each one, but can differ from person to person. If you have the resources to do so, feel free to do some testing of your own to find out what works best for you. When it comes to decision making on gear, this guide is meant to serve as an outline, not as the final say on which is best.

PvE (Dungeon/Raid Focus)

NOTE: This section will be explained with the assumption that the player is at least level 50, and has all of their abilities(not HM versions, just basic) unlocked.

Roles/Expectations of a Blade Master

Blade Master is one of the two classes in BnS with threat abilities, and hence considered a tank class. The other tank class in BnS is Kung Fu Master. Between the two, BM is a tank with more defensive party utility in the form of a party protect 3 hit iframe, and a ranged attack protection skill.

If you opt to play a BM in dungeons, chances are you’ll be expected to tank. Keep this in mind when selecting the class.

Quick explanation on threat/aggro

In BnS, aggro is generated through damage. The person with the highest aggro generated on the boss will be the focus of the boss’ attacks. Aggro and damage have a 1:1 relationship. For the sake of simplicity, if you do 100 dps, you generate 100 aggro.

As mentioned before, what distinguishes BMs and KFMs as tank classes is their ability to generate more aggro through threat skills. The threat buff adds 200% aggro to the existing 100%, for a total of 300% aggro generated when under the threat buff.

So when the threat buff is active, if you do 100 dps, you generate 300 aggro. This threat mechanic allows BMs and KFMs to steadily hold aggro even if they’re not doing the most dps.

This is what the threat icon looks like in game:

Blade Master Basics

Stances

BMs have two builds, Lightning and Fire (covered in later sections), and two primary stances for play in both builds: Basic Stance and Draw Stance. Basic Stance has more defensive utility, and is where party protection skills are available (Winged Protector and Warding Spirit). Draw Stance is a more offensive stance, which has the bulk of BM’s highest damage skills and main pve rotations.

The focus of BMs in both builds is to generally have as much Draw Stance uptime as possible in both builds, only exiting Draw Stance for CCs and party protection skills, or to use the main burst skill (Blade call/Phoenix Wing).

When in Basic Stance, Draw Stance can be entered in the following ways:

When in Draw stance, Basic stance can be entered in the following ways:

Sources of focus recovery

For both builds, the recommended focus recovery options are as follows:

Lightning Build

Basics

Lightning is a focus intensive build compared to Fire, and requires more gear to play at a competent level (maintaining draw stance for longer periods of time). Lightning requires management of two buffs, Finesse and Fulmination. Finesse is a buff that lowers the cost of Honed Slash (Draw Stance rmb) by 1. Fulmination is a buff that increases the damage dealt by Flicker (Draw Stance lmb) and Honed Slash.

The primary focus of lightning build is to animation cancel Draw Stance lmb/rmb as much as possible, while keeping up the Fulmination buff. Honed slash has no cooldown (unlike Dragontongue’s 6s cooldown), so the animation cancel is spammable as long as one has enough focus to do so.

Finesse Icon                    Fulmination Icon

The base sources of Finesse and Fulmination are:

Lightning BMs need to rotate focus recovery skills as their focus drops low, and not always off cooldown. For instance, using Lunar Slash off cooldown to keep Fulmination up might not always be the best course of action, if focus is already near max. Other cooldowns have to be considered, and using it for focus recovery + Fulmination when focus drops low, might be a better choice. Similarly, overlapping Finesse buffs from Lunar Slash and Raid isn’t a good idea. The priority and skill rotation changes with gear.

Lightning build notes

• Honed Slash is single target when Fulmination is not up, and becomes a frontal 180o aoe with fulmination.
• Awakened Honed Slash (rmb when Soulburn is active) is always a frontal 180o aoe.
• The maximum number of Honed Slashes that can be spammed in 1s is ~1.66. Hence, the max number of Honed Slashes under each Fulmination buff is:

• Under Lunar Slash/Lightning Draw (3s) - 5 Honed Slashes
• Under Blade Storm/Dual Strike/F block (6s) - 10 Honed Slashes

• Flicker has two different versions based on certain conditions.

• When Fulmination is active - the skill is called Lightning Blade, uses 0 focus, and does higher damage.
• When Fulmination is not active - the skill is called Flicker, uses 1 focus, and does lower damage.

Standard Lightning BM Spec

Notes

• Rush can be specced for threat if threat is only needed occasionally (for instance, if one is tanking melee add in Scion’s Keep.)
• Soaring Falcon can be specced for defense piercing if one prefers Z>V openers.
• Soaring Falcon can be specced for knockdown, if both stuns and knockdowns are needed in a fight.
• Boot can be specced for knockdown, along with knockdown Soaring Falcon, for certain fights where lots of knockdowns are required.
• HM Block move 2 (middle spec) can be used in fights like Dark Vicar to clear his debuff stacks. Also useful in Outlaw Island last boss during successive quick cat phases since it can be reset and doesn’t have a global cooldown.
• Conflagration Flash can be used to reduce the cooldown of Lunar Slash by 3s. To use Conflagration Flash, HM Breeze Move 1 or HM Pierce Move 1 is required.

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Fire Build

Basics

Fire build is the less focus hungry out of the two BM builds, and is friendlier for beginners as it doesn’t require much gear to perform the main rotations smoothly. Fire build requires management of one buff, called Conflagration.

The primary focus of Fire build is to have as much uptime/spam as possible on the main damage skill, Dragontongue (draw stance rmb). Without the Conflagration buff, Dragontongue has a 6s cooldown, and cannot be spammed.

Conflagration Icon

The base sources of Conflagration are:

Fire build notes

• Without Conflagration, Dragontongue is a single target skill. With the Conflagration buff however, Dragontongue has no cooldown, and is a 360o aoe.
• Awakened Dragontonue is always a 360o aoe, but is still not spammable without the Conflagration buff.
• The cooldown of Dragontongue can be lowered by 2s with each Flicker (Draw Stance lmb).
• The maximum number of Dragontongues that can be spammed in 1s is ~2.33. The max number of Dragontongues under each Conflagration buff is as follows:

• Under Lunar Slash (3s) - 7 + 1 Dragontongues
• Under Blade Storm (6s) - 15 + 1 Dragontongues
• Under 4x Flicker (1s) - 2 + 1 Dragontongues
• Under Dual Strike (2s) - 4 + 1 Dragontongues
• The +1 is a Dragontongue not under the Conflagration buff. To get this Dragontongue off, it has to be off of the 6s cooldown (i.e. Dragontongue should be usable without Conflagration) before the above Conflagration skills are cast.

Standard Fire BM Spec

Notes

• Rush can be specced for threat if threat is only needed occasionally (for instance, if one is tanking melee add in Scion’s Keep.)
• Soaring Falcon can be specced for defense piercing if one prefers Z>V openers.
• Soaring Falcon can be specced for knockdown, if both stuns and knockdowns are needed in a fight.
• Boot can be specced for knockdown, along with knockdown Soaring Falcon, for certain fights where lots of knockdowns are required.
• HM Block move 2 (middle spec) can be used in fights like Dark Vicar to clear his debuff stacks. Also useful in Outlaw Island last boss during successive quick cat phases since it can be reset and doesn’t have a global cooldown.
• Conflagration Flash can be used to reduce the cooldown of Lunar Slash by 3s. To use Conflagration Flash, HM Breeze Move 1 or HM Pierce Move 1 is required.

PvE Opening Rotations for various Gear

Lightning Build Openers:

Openers are listed for only recommended gear combinations. Counts assume max speed animation cancel (1.66 LB/RB per second). Numbers with an x next to them indicate the number of animation cancels to perform. i.e. 5x means 5 animation cancels.

• No badges/amulets
  V 4 Tab > 7x > X V > 9x > Tab > 4x

• Eternity + Skyrift + Dragon Bracelet

V C 4 > 14x >  C 4 > 14x

• Alluvion + Skyrift + Dragon Bracelet

V C 4 V > 14x >  C 4 > 6x > Z > 7x

• Alluvion + Aransu + Dragon Bracelet
  V C 4 Tab V > 9x > X > 6x > C Tab > 9x

• Colossus + Aransu + Dragon Bracelet (only recommended with 8 VT, Ancestral is better)

V Tab X C Tab X Tab 3 Tab V > 9x > 4 Tab > 5x > C LB RB X Tab > 9x

• Courage + Aransu + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab V > 5x > 4 Tab > 9x > C Tab > 9x > C > anicancel until Tab is up

• Ancestral + Aransu + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab X Tab 3 Tab V > 5x > 4 Tab > 9x > C Tab > 9x > C > anicancel until Tab is up

• Undying + Aransu + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab V > 5x > 4 Tab > 9x > C Tab > 9x > C > anicancel until Tab is up

• Undying + Aransu + Starbreaker

V 4 Tab > 5x > V Tab > 9x > LB X Tab > 9x > LB C > 4x > anicancel until Tab is up

• Ancestral + Aransu + Starbreaker

V 4 Tab X Tab 3 Tab V > 5x > Tab > 9x > LB Tab > 9x > LB C > anicancel until Tab is up

Fire Build Openers:

Openers are listed for only recommended gear combinations. Counts assume max speed DTs (~2.3 RB per second). RB with a number preceding it indicates the number of Dragontongues to use before using the next skill. i.e. 7RB means use 7 Dragontongues.

• No badges/amulets

V C 4 Tab > 8RB > XV > 16RB > Tab > 8RB

• Magnum + Pulse + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab > 8RB > 4 > 4RB > Tab > 8RB > C V X > 16RB > Tab > 8RB

• Magnum + Dynasty + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab > 7RB > 4 > 5RB > Tab > 7RB > C V X Tab > 10-11RB > Tab > 8RB

• Transcendence + Pulse + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab > 8RB > X > 16RB > C Tab > 5-6RB > X V > 16RB > Tab > 8RB

• Transcendence + Dynasty + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab > 7RB > X > 4RB > Tab > 7RB > C V X Tab > 10-11RB > 4 Tab > 8RB

• Colossus + Dynasty + Dragon Bracelet

V C Tab > 7RB > X Tab > 11RB > Tab > 7RB > C V X Tab > 11RB > 4 Tab > 8RB

• Courage + Dynasty + Dragon Bracelet (preferably 8 VT also)

V C Tab > 8RB > X V Tab > 11 RB > Tab > 7RB > 2 C LB > 4RB > 4 Tab > 8RB > Z LB > Tab > 8RB

• Ancestral + Dynasty + Dragon Bracelet (preferably 8 VT also)

V C Tab > 7RB > 4 V Tab > 7RB > X Tab > RB until tab is up > C Tab > 7RB > Z RB Tab > 7RB

• Courage + Dynasty + Divinity

V 4 Tab > 7RB > V Tab > 7RB > X Tab > 3RB > Tab > 10RB > Tab > 7RB > Z RB Tab > 7RB

• Ancestral + Dynasty + Divinity

V 4 Tab > 7RB > V Tab > 7RB > 3 Tab > 7RB > X Tab > 10RB > Tab Z > 6RB > Tab > 7RB

FAQs

Weapon Choices

There are multiple weapons that players upgrade through/select between, and often times, players are confused by which path to take. So this gets a section of its own.

Baleful vs Seraph - which is better?

Without Dragon Bracelet, Baleful will perform better. With Dragon Bracelet, Seraph can match Baleful due to higher bracelet uptime buffing Honed Slash/Dragontongue a lot more. With Dragon Bracelet and BT8, Seraph is 100% better than Baleful as Dragon Bracelet uptime is permanent with V on a 24s cooldown.

Dawnforged vs Riftwalk - which is better?

At this tier of weapons, Riftwalk starts to perform better. The only reason Baleful was considered over Seraph was because legendary resets were far easier to get on Baleful. Riftwalk and Dawnforged resets work the same as Raven. With bracelets and F20 badges now in the mix, Blade Call/Phoenix Wing uptime matters a lot, and Riftwalk is much better in that aspect.

Raven vs Riftwalk - which is better?

Raven versus Riftwalk is mostly in Raven’s favor if one doesn’t have BT 8-set soul shield because of the always applied modifier on Dragontongue/Honed Slash. Riftwalk’s performance can be very comparable with BT 8-set because Blade call/Phoenix Wing are on a 24s cooldown, and one can have very high uptime on bracelet buffs. If going Raven is an option, it would be the better choice long term (i.e. at S9 Raven and above, Raven performs better).

Builds, Bracelets, and Badges

Lightning vs Fire - which build is better?

Lightning and Fire are pretty much equal in terms of performance at all gear levels now. Pick whichever build appeals to you if your ping is low. If you play at high ping, Lightning is a better choice long term. Test the number of DTs you can get with Fire after using Tab (Lunar Slash). If you can't get at least 6 (5+1), then Lightning is definitely better for you.

Which Bracelet should I use?

Tiger is comparable to Dragon only at a very specific gear level (BT3, no BT8, and no Riftwalk), which will be passed by players very quickly as they progress. Going Dragon is the best choice for both builds, before Hellion bracelet (Starbreaker/Divinity).

If the Hellion bracelet (Starbreaker/Divinity) is obtainable, it is the best choice for both builds. The bracelet procs off of Lunar Slash (Tab), has double the uptime compared to Dragon or Tiger, and has a much more convenient rotation.

Which Mystic/Soul badge should I use?

Lightning Build:

With Skyrift Mystic Badge

Eternity and Alluvion are the best choices. Eternity is a more beginner friendly badge and gives more Fulmination uptime and focus. Alluvion can hit higher max numbers, but needs some resets to get those numbers. With the buffs to Skyrift, it's best to skip Alluvion and just play Eternity until VT soul shields are obtained.

With Aransu Mystic Badge

Before fused badges, Courage or Alluvion are good options. Courage is a better investment as it is used in fused badges, unlike Alluvion.

When fused badges are an option, Lightning has 2 choices for PvE: Undying and Ancestral. Undying is a PvE only badge, does not have use anywhere else, and requires a lot of micromanagement of the rotation to min-max. Ancestral does as well as Undying in PvE, and is usable outside of PvE - in ToI and 6v6. If you can only make one fused badge, Ancestral is the best choice. If multiple fused badges are not an issue, it is down to preference in playstyle.

Lightning Badge/Soul Shield Combo Table:

The following is the recommended combinations of gear to use. Other gear combinations have very little to no synergy.

Fire Build:

With Pulse Mystic Badge

Magnum and Transcendence are best badges in PvE with Pulse Mystic Badge, since they both significantly increase Conflagration uptime. Transcendence plays best with BT8 and Riftwalk. When the switch from BT8 to VT SS is made, Magnum is more convenient to use. If short on resources to obtain both (gold/solar energy), Magnum is a better choice.

With Dynasty Mystic Badge

Courage and Magnum are good options before VT8 SS. Courage is the better long term investment as it is used in the best fused badge for Fire.

When fused badges are an option, Ancestral is the best badge to use.

Fire Badge/Soul Shield Combo Table:

The following is the recommended combinations of gear to use. Other gear combinations have very little to no synergy.

Hongmoon (HM) Skills

Hongmoon skills are upgraded versions of base skills, and give additional effects to base skills. They can be obtained after reaching level 50 by consuming certain items. The following is a comprehensive list of HM skills for Blade Master and their priority in PvE and PvP.

HM Skill Priority

What to look for in a parse?

Notes

1) DT/s; HS/s or RB/s in general, is the amount of Dragontongues or Honed Slashes divided by fight duration in seconds.
2) RB/s, LB:RB are metrics used to evaluate a parse, given good fps/ping. These metrics are not achievable in all circumstances. The numbers posted are specific to F12 parses.

Lightning Specific

> The first thing to look for, at any gear level, is the anicancel per second, and the ratio of LB:RB, i.e. Flicker:Honed Slash.
> Ideal ratio for LB:RB is 1:1
> Anything above 1.4 LB:RB/s in a fight is very good anicancel speed, this is a good number to aim for if your ping is good and stable.
> At BT gear level - Skyrift badge has to be procced as often as possible. Check to see if Lightning Draw is being used at least once every 25s.
> At VT gear level - Tab (Lunar Slash) is the main focus, check the frequency of Tab usage. Once VT8 is acquired, the goal is to have one Tab every 4.5-5.5s.

Fire Specific

> At any gear level, the first thing to look for is RB/s, and how many Flickers are used. For Fire, the number of flickers compared to Dragontongues (DT) should be very low.
> At BT gear level - 1.9 DT/s and max Conflagration uptime is the goal.
> At VT gear level - (Dragontongues:Searing Sword Force) is a ratio to keep track of. The closer it is to 1:1, the better. Good ratios to aim for are 1:0.85+. i.e. If you have 100 DTs, you should have 85+ Searing Sword Force. Ideal Tab usage time is around 4-4.2s per Tab. Good DT/s ratio is 1.8/s. 1.9+ is ideal.

Common for both builds

> At all gear levels after getting Dragon Bracelet - Check to see if V (Blade Call/Phoenix Wing) is being used as often as possible (once every 24s/42s/60s depending on the cooldown). Lightning Rod has to have 2 uses per use of V.

> If you have Starbreaker/Divnity, do not use lightning rod in your rotation, and just check for Tab count for bracelet effectiveness/uptime.

6v6 Tips for BM

Gear Progression:

> Start off by getting the free Elder soul shields by doing quests given to you through letters while completing story. You get 3 set Elder from this quest.

> Run Starstone Mines and get 3 pieces of the set (preferably with accuracy and defense stats). At this point you can run Elder 5 set and Starstone 3 set.

> Fuse some blue (artisanal) piercing and crit defense primers to reach 2.5-3k crit defense and piercing

> Get meat dumplings (provides 600 cdef and 750 piercing, easy and cheap to craft), to help reach above mentioned goal.

> Make an Ascendant weapon (REALLY important for 6v6)

> Get Nova Core (Elite) soul shields (skip Beluga) 8 set. Can switch to 5 Nova 3 SSM or 5 Nova 3 BT when available, and then 8 Nova after.

> Get Subjugator Bracelet

General 6v6 gameplay tips:

> BM is not very strong in 6v6, so in team fights, use HM block to support the team (giving them untargetable buff), but use it from the back line instead of in the middle cause you end up a walking bullseye.

> Solo HM block (middle tree) is useful when there are multiple HM blocks in the team.

> Pick people off using Z4 (this is our strongest one shot in 6v6). Stun HM Z bounce is also good for stunning multiple people.

> Always be aware of what's going on in the map. Map awareness is really important. Look at which points are capped, how your team is distributed, where you can push and cap, where you need to defend.

> Keep an eye on your buffs and cooldowns, Ascendant cooldown is helpful to keep track of and play safe/aggressive depending on the situation. Potions reset on ascendant cooldown also. HM block global CD is another cooldown to keep track of, don't waste it when it gets reset but is on global cooldown when your HP is full or close to full. If you're low on hp and could use the bracelet buff, it's worth using even when on global CD.

Glossary of Terms