Blade Master

Blade Master

The **Blade Master** class imbues their bodies and weapons with essence to augment a lifetime of physical combat training. Using their abilities and skills, they can overwhelm their opponents with physical onslaughts, shield their party members, or even support them with curative abilities and passive effects.

The Blade Master uses two weapons to execute skills using physical gestures. Some skills require both swords, while others are executed with just one. Combat feels fluid, strategic, rhythmic, and fast-paced -- almost dancelike. Like all other classes, the Blade Master can play all three classic roles, (Support, DPS, and Tank).

You can view current abilities by looking at the Godstone menu. You can actively change your role at any time between subclasses, by selecting one of the different icons on the left side of the Godstone menu. The first time you make this switch will set your abilities so that you only know the basic skills of your new role. Advanced skills for that role can be unlocked. The previous roles you played as will still keep the skills you had in that role.

## Lore

Hundreds of years ago, samurai protected and served Zenithean nobles.
These days there are only a few people who study dual wielding at the
highest levels. Blade Masters are a highly trained group of dual
wielding experts.  Rin the Ram is a very notable Blade Master and the head of the Blade Master Academy.

## Playing as a Blade Master

There are an array of Bronze Colored touchstones (the floating boxes; hold your hand on them to use) on a plaza off to the side of the portal coming up from the Underside (the tutorial zone) take a look at those for additional information. You can also find information by hovering over the label on the far left side of your ability select in the Godstone menu.

### Basic & Charged Weapon Attacks

Basic weapon attacks can be made by swinging your sword into an enemy. Larger swings are required to maximize damage. Your blades can also be "charged" to increase damage by waiting a moment between attacks. There are two levels of charge which can be reached, signified by a chime sound and a basic circle then an electrified circle at the tip of your blade. Making successful attacks will drain any charge a sword has, and when drained in this way it will pass through other objects (preventing you from tangling your swords when frantically attacking with both at once). When initially drawn, swords will be uncharged so you should try to draw before engaging in combat.

### Blocking

To Block, hold the trigger button while holding a sword (your swords will glow) and intercept enemy attacks before they impact you. Your sword needs to be at an appropriate height and angle to intercept an attack.

Blocking attacks requires Stamina, which will be used up when an attack is intercepted. Stamina will not regenerate while activating block. Therefore it is beneficial to learn to time your blocks so that you activate blocking for the minimum amount of time to intercept attacks (in order to give your stamina the best chance possible to start regenerating).

Sometimes you will find you need to hold your sword so that it intercepts attacks well before they reach you (more than you think) either outwards to the sides, above your head or out forwards depending on the direction of the attack. For enemies that charge at you and attack, block straight/flat.

Successfully blocking melee attacks will increase enemy stagger and will usually interrupt attack sequences. Ranged attacks (arrows or spells) can also be blocked but doing so will not affect enemies in any way so it is better to dodge these instead.

**Unblockables:** Area of Effect attacks (which can be recognized by the red area that will appear on the ground) cannot be blocked and will have to be dodged instead. If the attack includes magic (like the snake's red swing), it can't be blocked.

### Rage

The **Blade Master** ability resource (indicated by the bar between your Health and stamina bar while in combat) which is expended when using power strikes, ultimates, and master strikes as indicated by particular abilities. Your maximum Rage is determined by your Affinity stat, which is increased by gear effects which improve Support (also by the primary stat figure when playing as the Support subclass). In game parlance, the term Rage is effectively interchangeable with Mana, and is also sometimes called Resources.

### Dash

Press B while moving in a direction to use Dash to move at a set velocity horizontally in a fast burst of movement that lasts for a short amount of time. Can be used midair while not gliding. If used while not moving horizontally (motionless or falling/jumping) the ability will still activate and any secondary effects will work, but the player will not be moved.
Making effective use of Dashes is important for avoiding AoE attacks.

### Cadences

Cadence abilities can be either vertical or horizontal. Cadence abilities will automatically activate every third fully charged attack that the player makes with either hand that successfully hits an enemy. Cadence hit counter does not reset if the player makes partially charged/uncharged attacks or if the player misses. Given the player does not leave combat, Cadences will also still count up when switching between enemies. The direction of the cadence ability is only dependent on the third strike in the sequence, so a horizontal cadence could be triggered by a horizontal swing which followed two vertical swings.

Vertical Cadence

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Horizontal Cadence

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### Power Strike

Power Strikes can be performed either vertically or horizontally by making a weapon attack while holding the trigger button (similar to blocking). You only need to hold the button for a very short time during your attack to make a power strike. Energizing your weapons in this way prevents stamina regen so minimizing the time that you do this is beneficial.

Vertical Power Strike

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Horizontal Power Strike

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### Weapon Throw

To perform a weapon throw, release your sword while swinging your arm in a throwing motion. Your weapon will return automatically a short time after impacting. Weapon Throws can actually be performed at any level whether or not any weapon throw abilities have been unlocked, but doing so will require a direct hit to deal any damage and the damage it deals will be similar to a normal weapon attack. This is also true for weapons thrown during the cooldown period of a weapon throw ability.

### Master Strike

To begin charging for a master strike, perform a power strike (vertical or horizontal) but keep the trigger button held afterwards. You will hear a bell when the master strike is charged, and your charged weapon will glow. The master strike will be performed by simply hitting an enemy while in this charged state. The charge will remain until the trigger is released or the master strike is performed.

### Ultimate

Uses both weapons to perform a powerful attack which is on a lengthy cooldown. An ultimate ability is performed by doing a downward power strike action (holding the trigger) with both of your swords simultaneously

## Generic Ability Set

These abilities are available to unlock on all sub-classes, and when you unlock them on one subclass you can use it on any other subclass without meeting the level requirement. They aren't designed to specifically fit any particular subclasses role. There are no generic versions for Ultimate or Master Strike abilities.

## Class Specific Ability Set

There are many other abilities are available to unlock on each of the three sub-classes. To learn more about those ability sets please visit the Support, DPS, or Tank Blade Master pages.

**Blade Master video Guide:**

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Slicing through projectileSlicing Through an ArrowHttps://imgur.com/gallery/dTp1rmJBlademaster - Dreadlord's Plate Armor : "The essence in this armor glows with the infused blood of fallen combatants"