What stats do Blademasters use now?

Jakarana

It's been a while since I've been in the realm, but when I last played I was told that strength and stats in general is pretty much useless for Blademasters and to just spec in Constitution for health.
More specifically in the case of drawslash and bashing.

I got a few emails recently saying there were lots of changes to the game and now I'm wondering if the situation is any different since I'm seeing blademasters mentioning they're specced into strength.

Eld

The only thing that changed for blademaster bashing in the recent changes was the base damage of drawslash, as far as I know. Drawslash damage increases by something like 5% per point of strength, with diminishing returns above 13 strength. So it definitely increases DPS noticeably, you just have to weigh the offensive advantage against the survivability advantage of extra health from con. Dex only affects dodging, which is irrelevant for bashing, and int only affects max mana and Shin burst damage, both minimally relevant for bashing.

Sena

Strength is basically the same for blademasters as it is for nearly all strength-based (and int-based) attacks. There's a universal formula for str/int damage bonuses that almost all stat-based attacks use, with just a slight variation between them (for example, an attack with a "low" strength bonus might get a 6.2% boost from 13 str, while one with a "high" strength bonus might get 6.9%). There are only a few exceptions that use their own special formula, such as disembowel.

In short, for blademaster hunting get strength if you want more offence or con if you want more defence, same as every strength-based class.

Jakarana

Thanks for the help.
I used the strangely useful Blademaster technique of committing Sudoku next the flame of Yggdrasil, just so I could reincarnate as a Strength Specced Rajamala.
I immediately noticed a good improvement in my bashing and ratting speeds, and I'm liking the increased gold income of one-shotting rats instead of two-shotting them.

Caladbolg

Jakarana said:

Thanks for the help.
I used the strangely useful Blademaster technique of committing Sudoku next the flame of Yggdrasil, just so I could reincarnate as a Strength Specced Rajamala.
I immediately noticed a good improvement in my bashing and ratting speeds, and I'm liking the increased gold income of one-shotting rats instead of two-shotting them.

Don't forget stances Actually help in bashing now, Bashing in Arash is going to give you -alot- more damage than thyr. (but you take more too... for rats it's nothing to worry about

Eld

Jakarana said:

Thanks for the help.
I used the strangely useful Blademaster technique of committing Sudoku next the flame of Yggdrasil, just so I could reincarnate as a Strength Specced Rajamala.
I immediately noticed a good improvement in my bashing and ratting speeds, and I'm liking the increased gold income of one-shotting rats instead of two-shotting them.

I never knew Sudoku was so much more deadly in Achaea than RL....

As Caladbolg mentions, the bug that caused stances not to affect drawslash damage was fixed a while back. Arash has the best DPS by a good bit, but is usually to squishy to use for serious hunting. Sanya is the next best, and is what attack is balanced around (i.e., unbanded Sanya drawslash gives you about the same DPS as most other classes' unartied standard hunting attacks).

Zulah

Jakarana said:

Thanks for the help.
I used the strangely useful Blademaster technique of committing Sudoku next the flame of Yggdrasil, just so I could reincarnate as a Strength Specced Rajamala.
I immediately noticed a good improvement in my bashing and ratting speeds, and I'm liking the increased gold income of one-shotting rats instead of two-shotting them.

Get a bastard sword use Mir stance and slash. I have a level 3 band and still use Mir/Weaponry slash. Much more effective.