What's to come in this guide?
-Katana bladers vs Blade bladers
~Interlude: Posters Questions, answered!
-Skills
-Skills Part Two
~Second Interlude: Video Collection
-Combo
-Aura Mode
-Battle Mode 1
-Battle Mode 2
-PvP
If you have a question unrelated to any of these topics, or if you feel that I left something important out, please feel free to post it and I will try my best to answer it and add it to the guide.
The General Jist of Bladers
Bladers are CABAL's speed demon class. Similar to bandits and assassins featured in other games, bladers specialize in fast, multi-hit attacks and high evade. Though some bandits and assassins are weak compared to the other classes in some other games, bladers are a big exception. A Blader's ultimate skill is an AoE skill that can eliminate a mob with 1 use and cut off about half of a player's HP in a PvP. Bladers also have the ability to 1 shot a foe, whether monster or person, with a pretty high chance of success. But enough of delving into more detailed subjects.
Personal note: If you're the kind for speed and fast paced gameplay, then bladers are probably your #1 choice. All blader skills execute quickly (with the exceptions of Blade Cry and Twinmoon Slash) and make for beautiful combos.
The Ultimate Blader Question: Should I use dual katanas or dual blades?
Quote:
| Originally Posted by UltraViolet If you search any other cabal forums, you should be able to find like 101 posts about this Blader | Str | Int | Dex | HP | MP | -----------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-- Base Stats | 16 | 3 | 16 | 50 | 20 | -----------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-- Atk |0.25 | -- |0.25 | -- | -- | Magic | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | -- | -- | Def |0.167| -- |0.167| -- | -- | Hit Rate | 2 | 0.4 | 2 | -- | -- | Def Rate | 1.2 | 0.1 | 1.2 | -- | -- | I believe this was taken from cabal korea. So if it is different then there's nothing I can do. And if it's different then who knows what stats calculation cabalsea will be using. STR = DEX, they both add exactly the same thing. I believe the general advice would be to add STR and DEX equally. That way, you have room for every kind of equipment, blades/katanas, osmium armor/mystic. As for blades vs katana, I think use whatever you can find. Unless you have 2 red osms katanas and 2 red osms blades then you probably have to see which looks cooler. |
Poster's Questions, answered here!
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Polis er...Duo can you tell me...how much stats point i will get for each lvl?10? |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Purple how do we get the skills and add skill points? and how long does grappler last, and how do we rank up? |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Purple oo how much each for the skill? |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Zer0shiki hmm.. Duo, the combo bar is [...........................|......|....] and a perfect combo is near the bar,something like [////////////////////|.......|....] so wht abt [//////////////////|///////|....] would it be the same as [////////////////////|.......|....] ???? sry abt the lousy language |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Purple how long does BM1 and BM2 last? |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Polis Question~~~: what is Battle Aura....^_^ the element? |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Purple its just a temporary buff the elments make no difference , its just the look |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Polis One More Question: Between Blader And Force Archer which is the most Helpful character in war.. |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by KopiO may i know what does 'heavy blader' means?? |
The Blader Skill Collection
I will now list blader SWORD skills as they appear in each ranking and give an opinionare on each.
Novice Rank
Flash Draw - This skill is your first skill that can be easily used to attack multiple foes in front of you and to your sides as well. This skill knocks opponents off their feet as well, which will save you a lot of damage. You can't get hurt if your enemy can't attack you. To try to help you imagine what it looks like, you pull each of your swords to your side with arms crossed in front of you. Your character bends low, charges up, and then releases a cross slash.
Impact Stab - Your first attack skill. In fact, you start with this skill. This is a fast skill but is hard to use for area of effect. You get it free of charge, so you can't really say anything bad about it. A very simple visual. You simply stab with your left? sword while taking a small step forwards.
Stab Slash - Ah, a skill that does 2 hits! A very appropriate name, for you really do stab, and then slash! The slash portion of this skill has AoE. It's basically a combination of the previous 2 skills in one single motion.
Fade Step - This skill allows you to swiftly back away from your opponent. If you know you're about to die, you can simply back up and then flee. A nice skill, but I would skip it and get a different movement skill in the near future.
Apprentice Rank
Concentration - Increases your hit rate, 'nough said :P
Dash - This is the skill that I feel is superior to fade step. When you use this skill, your character swiftly moves almost an entire screen's distance towards where your mouse is on the screen. You more much farther and much faster than you do with fade step, so I prefer having this skill instead.
Double Slash - Two quick, consecutive slashes. This skill covers everything in front of you, so it's very useful for fending off large mobs, even more so than Stab Slash, since both of your hits are AoE.
Triple Slash - Three slashes in one motion. This skill covers everything in front of you and to your sides as well. Your first slash slashes from left to right, then you slash with your opposing katana from right to left, and then you conclude with a third slash that is executed after you spin around and finish with your left hand sword I believe.
Regular Rank
Blade Force - Increases the damage of your swords. Some people say to skip it since you get a stronger version of this skill later on, but I still got it and found it helpful enough to keep. Try not to get too obsessive over leveling it up really high though
Death Cross - Your first "power house" skill. This skill features a double sword stab, after which your character separates the swords, one going left, the other going right. The stab is not AoE, but the final slashes are. It does a high amount of damage, but is sadly slow in execution. Still a must have skill.
Rising Shot - A one handed swing straight up to flip your opponent over. Basically it's a faster, one target version of Flash Draw, and it's also stronger. However, I advise skipping this skill. You will already have Flash Draw, Impact Stab, Double Slash, Triple Slash, and Death Cross to combo with, so you shouldn't waste points on an almost useless skill.
Double Rising - A very deceptive name, for this is actually a 3 hit succession skill. Your character spins around while performing 3 upper cut slashes with the sword. It has a limited AoE range, but still has enough to be counted as an AoE skill. Strong and useful for comboing in place of Death Cross.
Expert Rank
Storm Grind - A fun to use skill. Your character vanishes in a poof of black smoke, and swiftly swings upwards, flying about 5 times your avatar height into the air. This skill is full AoE (hits everything around you in a circle), and flips them over. Powerful, and a must keeper.
Assault - A fast charging attack. This skill is VERY VERY useful for fighting bosses in this game. If you do not get this skill then beating boss dungeons will be virtually impossible.
Hasing Dance - One of the ***iest skills in the game. Your character flips both of his swords into hilt leading grip (rather than having the blade sticking out of your grip) and performs 7 consecutive left to right / right to left slashes, finishing with a double slash with swords back in the normal grip after spinning a 360. This skill is front and side AoE, and is very VERY powerful due to it having 8 strikes.
Iron Skin - Make your pathetic defense pathetic no more! Your first defense up skill has arrived.
A. Expert Rank (Advanced Expert)
Mirage Step - Thought your evade was good already? Well think again, cause it's about to get better! Your evasion skill is here, and it's a mighty effective one.
Round Cut - A skill common to all classes, you spin around in a circle and strike everything around you once. This is a very iffy skill. I ended up deleting it and relearning it many many times. I would say delete it unless you have nothing to combo with.
Blade Aura - The stronger version of Blade Force. Increase your attack by even more!
Mirage Grind - A lovely skill to watch. Your character crosses his katanas over his head and bends at the knees to charge up, then he releases a small radius and a large radius circular spin, while spinning himself around to deal many successions to everything around you. A must have that excels beyond the forces of even Hasing Dance.
Master Rank
Twin-moon Slash - Your only ranged attack skill. You cross your blades in front of you, charge up, and shoot dual moons about the same distance as a dash would take you. This skill pierces, so it hits everything in a line in front of you. A good skill when used correctly
Aura Barrier - Iron Skin advanced! The more defense the better.
Vital Interfere - A stun skill that stops your enemies in it's tracks in the same pathline as Twin-moon Slash. Useful for PvP mostly.
A. Master Rank (Advanced Master)
Blade Cry - A freaking power house AoE skill. With this skill, you stick your swords together, pointing straight up, spin around about 4-5 times, then swing out your blades to deal a full circle AoE that strikes very high damage to everything in a very large area. Think of it as turning your character into a mini nuke.
G. Master Rank (Grand Master)
Blade Scud - The skill of all skills for a blader. This skill is a 6-7 hit succession that features an insane animation that I can't begin to comprehend with how little I've seen it. This is a piercing skill like Twin-moon Slash, except your character moves through the mob until you reach the end of it. If you land all 6-7 hits, it can instantly kill a mob.
Magic Skills
It is vital to train your magic skills as well as your sword skills. Whenever you increase your rank on your sword skills, you gain something like 10 STR, 10 DEX, and a lot of HP. The same applies for when you increase your magic skill rank. You will receive I believe 5ish INT and a lot of MP. It also opens slots for passive upgrades (that naturally boost HP/MP, avoid, accuracy, damage, defense without having to physically use them).
Bladers have very good AoE skills. In fact, ALL blader skills can be exploited and used as an AoE skill, all of them besides "rising shot" and "assault".
For impact stab, if you have 2 or more monsters in a line in front of you, click on the farthest back monster and you will stab all of them. Here's an example. Imagine that monsters are represented by "x" and you are represented by "B" (cause you're a blader)
...x.x.x.B. If you click on the bolded X, all 3 will be hit. If you click the first one, then only the first one will be hit (the one closest to you).
For flash draw, you can attack monsters in a small arc in front of you.
Say this is your situation, using the same variables as before (I will use the same variables throughout all my examples).
......x
.....x..B
......x
If you click on the bolded X, you will be able to strike all 3 if they're close together enough.
For stab slash, it's pretty much a combination of both impact stab and flash draw.
.......x
...x.x.B
.......x
Click on the bolded x to hit all 4.
For double slash, it's got a very nice range. If i remember correctly it works like this:
...x.x
..x.x..B
...x.x
Click the bolded x to hit all 6 of them
For triple slash, it's almost just like double slash, only it's got a slightly bigger range as well.
...x.x.x
..x.x.|B
...x.x.x
You can't hit enemies that are right on your side, but you can hit them if they're still slightly in front of you.
For death cross, it's pretty much just like triple slash. Death cross is a two stage attack, a dual stab, and then separating your swords to the left and right. I will color the monsters that get affected by the stab AND slash with red, while monsters that get affected by the after swing are colored green.
....x.x
.x.x.x.B
....x.x
I believe you can do that. If you can't hit 3 in front, then it's just like triple slash.
Rising shot is teh sux. I don't remember AoEing with it, and all it does is flip a single opponent over. I would say save money (a little money) and SKIP this one.
Double rising is kind of hard to AoE with. It has the same potentials of double slash, but the monsters have to be tighter together.
...x.x
..x.x.B
...x.x
Here we go, your first ever full AoE skill! Storm grind is a full circle AoE, but similar to double rising, the monsters have to be right up against you and well packed to strike a full circle.
...x.x.x
...x.B.x
...x.x.x
You can target anyone you want in the ring.
Assault is an essential boss slaying skill. What you do is dash about 5 character steps in an instant and slash once to one enemy. It's pointless to combo with, but you MUST get it to kill bosses.
Ohhh yeah, this is one of your smexiest skills right here, hasing dance. It has a beautiful range that can be exploited excessively with tightly packed monsters. On mechazards, I believed I managed to expoit to this maximum potential range:
...x.x.xx
..x.x.|B
...x.x.xx
If you target the bolded x, you will be able to even hit slightly BEHIND you. It covers something like 220 degrees of ground, a very useful skill, you will probably keep it forever.
Round cut is a skill you should probably just not get. It costs like 700k-1 mill so I'd say skip it unless you don't have enough skills to keep a continuous combo. Round cut is just like storm grind, only it's weaker (I think). It just has lower cool down time and faster execution. The damage range:
..x.x.x
..x.B.x
..x.x.x
Round cut also can reach slightly farther than storm grind.
Mirage grind is a MUST GET, MUST KEEP skill. It has the BEST full circle AoE that you can ever hope to obtain as a blader. The range looks something like this when fully exploited:
-......x.x
-....x.x.x.
..x.x.B.x.x
-....x.x.x
-......x.x
Target any one of those monsters and you will be able to obtain that kind of range (I think, I'm not sure how far it goes on the second layer of monsters).
Twin moon slash is a long range piercer skill. It's a very debatable skill, certainly useful for PvP, but it's usefulness in PvE is fairly mehish. I personally use it to collect mobs in LiD, and it does do some decent damage, so this is purely a your choicer skill
..x.x.x.x.x.x
.................B
..x.x.x.x.x.x
I can't draw two rows of monsters with a B in the middle of them, but if you take the two rows of monsters and squish them together, that's what twin moon slash's range is like. Note, you do NOT move when you use this skill, you stay where you are to attack.
The blader's stun skill, vital interfere. This skill blasts in a line that pierces through, temporarily freezing your opponents where they stand for perhaps 3-5 seconds. I think the range is either like twin-moon slash's range, or it works like this:
..x.x.x.x.x..B
Not too sure, because I've never gotten to this skill, nor have I seen it oftenly used by anyone.
Guess what? Your second best skill is your second strongest skill, and it is also a full circle AoE that has practically the same range as mirage grind. I believe people usually deal around 1-1.1k damage when they first get this skill, no critical damage counted in.
-......x.x
-....x.x.x.
..x.x.B.x.x
-....x.x.x
-......x.x
Once again, target any of those four to get something like the range you see here.
Finally, our G-master, our pride and our glory, BLADE SCUD. Blade scud is an enlargened, stronger, multihit version of twin-moon slash, except your character flies through the mobs as well.
..x.x.x.x.x.x.x
.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.B
..x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Target that sucker way out there, and you'll destory everything in that line of path. Blade scud is a 5 hit succession technique. when you fly through the mob, you deal one slash to each set of two monsters, and the last set of monsters takes 2 hits. So, I'll color code it like this:
Takes first hit Takes second hit Takes third hit Takes fourth and fifth hit
..x.x.x.x.x.x.x
.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.B
..x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Also, if you do not want to spread the love to an entire mob, you can deal all 5 hits to a wall of mob by clicking a closer monster. I believe blade scud can accompany this range whilst dealing all 5 hits to all of them
..x.x.x
.x.x.x.B
..x.x.x
Might be a little farther than what you can do, but you can definitely mob them with blade scud in that manner and have all 5 hits land on all the monsters.
Boss Killing Strategy
It's almost the same for every boss. HIt, and run. Run, very far away. Believe it or not, the best way to beat most bosses is to follow this attack pattern:
Attack with assault/magic --> Dash and avoid attacks --> Attack with assault/magic --> Dash and avoid attacks -->Attack with assault/magic --> Dash and avoid attacks.
That's seriously everything you need to do in order to beat a boss. There are times when you will have to do more running than attacking, but that is the single most effective boss killer tactic. Bosses are immune to Battle Mode 1 and 2, meaning if you turn them on, you won't be able to hurt bosses one bit.
Blader videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWpm8hkT7iI ~Level unknown. Shows many skills, BM2, and a boss fight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6TmSXEuG0 ~Level 74 blader that has obtained up to Blade Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiY2DNU1nkI ~Blade Scud demonstrations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIzu9RdWNYQ ~Blader skill showcasing from Storm Grind to Vital Interfere
Combo - Level 10 Rank Up
Combo is an ability unique to CABAL and CABAL alone. When you activate this lovely ability, a message will appear saying "Combo Start", and a bar will appear underneath the monster's HP (You can change your options to have the combo meter above your head instead of at the top of the screen). The bar will be empty when you start it, and then a bar will automatically start to fill up. The first combo bar will look something like this:
[............................|................|......]
What you want to do is push a skill key when the bar is as close as possible to the 2 bars you see near the end of the bar. The more accurate you are with your combo timing, the stronger your skill will be.
I believe you can obtain 3 different combo ratings, actually, 4, if you miss.
Miss
2 scenarios for a combo to miss
[/////................|.................|......] Pushing way too early
[////////////////////////||//////////||/////] Or not pushing at all.
Good ~ Minimal Skill Damage Amplification
[/////////////............|...............|......] The bar will appear something like this color, and it will be far away from either line. The distance can also apply if you push very late.
Great ~ Decent Skill Damage Amplification
[//////////////////.......|...............|......] The bar is somewhat close to either line, and will appear as something like the color I made it. You can also obtain greats for pushing right in the middle or right after the second bar.
Excellent ~ Maximum Skill Damage Amplification
[////////////////////////.|...............|......] The bar is very close to either line, or is right on it. When you strike an excellent, your skills will do as much damage as possible. Excellent appears as a tone of red I believe.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by FireCloud hmm actually the combo is rather like this instead: bad: [////////////////////////|[//.....|......] good: [////////////////////////|[/////.|......] excellent: [////////////////////////|[/////|......] |
**As the number of combos increase, the area of the bars will decrease, and the bar will move faster and require a change of pace for success. Also, the area of success will decrease, making even getting a great hard to do. Here's an example
1-5 hit combo bar:
[..............................|................|.......]
6-10 hit combo bar:
[.........................................|.......|.....]
11+ hit combo bar:
[.................................................|..|..]
I'm not sure if the bars change at the exact hits that I listed, but you get the general idea that it gets harder. I can't show bars moving at a faster rate, so this is the best I can do.
Battle Aura - Level 20 Rank Up : SP use = 1 block
A battle aura is basically a temporary super buff. All of your stats are boosted for a period of time to help you kill more effectively. Auras have different elements based on how you answer the series of questions they ask you. So in a sense, your preferences should end you up with your favorite element. There's wind and fire as an example, but I forget the rest.
Battle Mode 1 ~ Illusionist - Lv 30 Rank Up: SP use = 1 block
The Illusionist mode is basically an even more powerful version of battle aura. A few differences is that whenever you use skills, your screen shakes and jiggles to indicate extreme damage, and you really do deal extreme damage with illusionist mode on. You can also stack battle aura ontop of Illusionist mode so that you can increase your potentials to their max with that combination.
Battle Mode 2 ~ Grappler - Lv 50 Rank Up: SP use = 1 block
The Grappler mode turns you into a butt kicking duelist that is a master in the art of 1 on 1 combat. Your swords transform in to shiny blue 3 bladed claws. When you active grappler, **Most of your skills will be unusable during that time, with the exceptions of Assault, Double Rising, and Blade Scud** During this battle mode, you can attack a single monster with god like attack speeds, successing around 3-5 hits in less than a second.
Grappler mode also comes with a bonus in the form of the skill known as Crushing Blow. When you activate this skill, you leap high into the air, and dive down onto your target. If you deal a critical it, it is instant death for monsters and people alike.
Grapplers are thus awesome for PvP, and they are very effective at taking down hard monsters that have lots of HP. If a full blown Crushing Blow doesn't instantly kill, it has the potential of dealing 6.5k damage. I can usually clear a room full of hard monsters (about 15 ~ 20 of them) before my grappler mode runs out.
Side note about SP, what it is, and how to get it
SP is the points that allow you to use combo, battle aura, BM1, and BM2. The SP meter will appear under your mana bar in the top left corner of the screen. It will look like this:
[.......................] [] [] [] [] []
When you use combo, your meter will go from [||||||||||||||||||||] to something like [||||||||||||||||||..].
When you use aura mode, BM 1, or BM 2, you will consume a full block of SP, which are those 5 squares in my previous picture. Whenever you fill up your SP meter completely, it will be stored in one of those blocks.
In order to gain SP back, just kill. Using skills is the fastest way to get SP back, and it takes just as much time to fill the 1st SP block as it does to fill the 5th SP block. You gain an SP box every Rank up, meaning every 10 levels. When you get combo, you will be able to have 1 SP block, when you get aura, 2 SP blocks to use, BM1, 3 blocks to use, BM2, 4 blocks to use, etc. The max amount of SP blocks are either 4 or 5.
Side note: you must perform a 13 or 14 hit combo to regain all SP used to activate that combo.
PvP
This game features PvP and PK systems. During a PvP, the best strategy would be to activate your combo, and then unleash an all out attack on your opponent. If you intend on breaking your opponents combo, using dash or fade step is very adept at doing that for you. There really isn't much to say about PvP. Just bring your strongest swords and armor and make sure you combo to your best capabilities.
Duo's Guide for Bladers - Written By DuoBlader - Contributed By genesis_x
http://forums.playpark.net/showthrea...=art+of+blader
