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Thread: Blankaex's Blade Lord Guide

  1. #1
    IAちゃんまじかわイア blankaex's Avatar
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    Default Blankaex's Blade Lord Guide




    Current Version: Up to date.
    So I like kinda stopped playing Maple; the Lumi patch was one SP reset too many. I guess the guide is still somewhat viable, but definitely not 100% accurate and probably won't be updated for the foreseeable future.
    Current level:



    Introduction

    Contradictory to the title of the thread, this is actually a complete Dual Blade guide, and not just for the Blade Lord advancement. Blade Lord because it looks cooler. This guide runs through my personal experiences with a Dual Blade character, and how I went about playing, allocating stats and such. I decided to make this guide since Dual Blades are the only character I ever seriously enjoyed and trained with (though Bandits come very close), and because the Guides section was lacking an updated Dual Blade guide. I am aware that Neothisis has a guide already, but I believe that his guide is lacking opinions, albeit full of raw facts. I am by no means badmouthing his guide, and am writing my own to provide users with a different point of view.

    Unlike other guides, that would write a level-by-level SP guide, and then justify it afterwards, I'll include things like training locations and suggested equipment, organised by levels. This guide is meant to be used for reference, and I am by no means forcing you to follow it. I am open for suggestions and additions, but don't just blatantly refuse my ideas, because these are opinions.

    Please inform me if you notice an error in the guide. Things like grammatical errors, incorrect skill assignment (stuff not adding up correctly, not where the skills should be assigned), broken image links and outdated skills are but few of the many mistakes that could happen in this guide. Additionally, I made this guide, so if you would like to use it for your website and such, contact me first to gain my approval, and be sure to reference me. If you see this guide in any place that is not the Hidden-Street forums, please contact me so I can look into it.

    I also think a changes log is unnecessary because I for one never check any of them, and I don't really think anyone cares about them either. I guarantee you, though, that the guide is updated as much as it can be, and if there is a DB Update, you can expect the guide to be amended to reflect such changes within a week or so whenever I’m bothered. You can see the last time I edited the post at the bottom, just above my sig in a small, italic font.


    About Me
    Because this part is absolutely necessary.

    At the time of writing this guide, I am a level 123 Blade Master, and I'll probably stay that way for a while. I already have the Phantom Blow and Final Cut skills though, so I know what to say about them. I've also used Mastery Books on all my Pre-120 skills as well, so I'm qualified to talk about that as well. I've been playing for quite a while, before Pirates came out. And even a year or two before that, I think. But not very professionally, since I wasn't too old back then and don't really remember too much. I've just been idling around Maple a lot, and have played every single first job class, and almost all second job. Not very many third since I'm lazy, and my Dual Blade is the highest I've gotten so far, and I only made it with Chaos. I don't believe I'm the best Blade Master, though I'd like to think so, but I do believe I am qualified to talk about my favourite and main class.


    What is a Dual Blade?

    Basics of a Dual Blade
    The name "Dual Blade" makes you think of a job that can wield two weapons. And you'd be right. Dual Blades are a Thief class, and use a Dagger (the same as Bandits), as their primary weapon, and in the secondary hand slot (shield slot), they hold a Dual-Blade-Exclusive series of weapons called Kataras. Currently in Windia, Kataras and Daggers are amazingly overpriced, and their scrolls are one of the most expensive, rivaling the infamous 60% Glove for Attack, and Thief classes in general are usually more costly than most other classes, so a Dual Blade is not recommended to be your first character if you're just starting out on MapleStory.

    Stats
    Like all other Thief classes, Dual Blades have Luk as their primary stat and damage modifier. Dex is the secondary stat, which isn't really used for anything other than equipping items, which will be a pain, since they require high amounts of Dex (+40 above your level, if I recall correctly). There isn't a real guide to stat assignment, since it all really depends on which stat boosts on equipment you have, or can afford, so it really comes down to your own decision. Though, Base Dex shouldn't really need to go over 80, because things like a 10 Dex Sauna/Bathrobe and Zakum Helmet can gloss over lost Dex for a fair few levels until you can equip or purchase higher level +Dex items. I had a pair of boots with +10 Dex, +10 Dex potential, in addition to the +Dex from the item itself. It ended up with around +25 Dex, and I didn’t even pay for it. I just picked up a pair of boots and revealed the potential.

    Pros and Cons

    Pros
    • Extremely high damage per second
    • (Arguably) The best looking equipment
    • Great mobility
    • Additional job advancements, resulting in more skills more quickly
    • Able to both mob and boss effectively
    • Phantom Blow and Final Cut are just damn sexy
    • Probably the highest avoid in the game as of Mutiny. Suck it, Shadow Shifter. Seriously, I've killed Zakum without using any HP potions while standing on him the whole time.


    Cons
    • Costly equipment
    • Low-Medium health
    • Very easy to mess up stats and skills
    • Requires NX Mastery Books
    • Phatom Blow and Final Cut need skill books



    The Guide

    Skill Build
    The guides will be categorised by job advancements, and will include a general description, a skill build, and my training locations. An explanation and my opinion of all the skills of that job are also provided. The skill build is there, because it wouldn't really be considered a guide without one. By no means do you need to follow it exactly, step by step - though that is highly recommended, and kind of the point.

    Beginner
    Spoiler!


    Rogue
    Spoiler!


    Blade Recruit
    Spoiler!


    Blade Acolyte
    Spoiler!


    Blade Specialist
    Spoiler!


    Blade Lord
    Spoiler!


    Blade Master
    Spoiler!



    Training Locations
    So here, I'll be covering a list of training locations suitable for Dual Blades in my opinion. For a more in-depth (albeit general) guide on training location, see Lex's Levelling guide. It's somewhat outdated, and I'm not sure whether he plans to update it or not, but at the moment, it's still quite reliable.

    Level 10~30
    Spoiler!


    Level 30~70
    Spoiler!


    Level 70~120
    Spoiler!


    Level 120~200
    Spoiler!



    Equipment
    The equipment you use on your character will always affect how fast you level up. If you have "godly" equipment, you'll be killing monsters faster, thus earning more Exp in less time. If you have little equipment, you'd take more damage from mobs, use up more potions, and not only unnecessarily waste money on those, but you'd also lose time from constantly hitting your potion button. It is good to have equips ranging from stat-boosting ones to damage-boosting ones in order to maximise your damage output and overall levelling speed.

    Level 10~30:
    Spoiler!


    Level 30~70:
    Spoiler!


    Level 70~120
    Spoiler!


    Level 120~200:
    Spoiler!



    Keyboard Layout
    Having a well laid-out keyboard while playing Maple on any character, not just Dual Blades, allows for comfort and ease of playing, for added enjoyment to the game. Dual Blades have numerous skills and buffs, and I've tested a number of multiple different keyboard layouts. In my opinion, this is the best way to lay out your Maple keyboard. I haven't seen this kind of section in many guides, so I thought you might like it. :D

    Spoiler!



    Bibliography and References
    Myself, for writing the guide, and sharing my experiences with the Dual Blade class, as well as all of the awesome images you see in the guide.
    Tesiqurasa, for approving my guide without question, and accepting it straight away, when I accidentally posted instead of previewed.
    Emailbox, CVS and Clockwork, for providing useful tips for my guide-writing, as well as notifying me of errors in my guide.

    Russ' Guide on Dragon Knights, for formatting ideas.
    Emailbox's guide on FP Mages, for formatting ideas.
    Lex's 1~120 Guide, for providing useful information to write in my guide.
    Neo's Dual Blade Guide, for providing me a different perspective to compare with.
    Hidden-Street Database, to link things in my guide that people may be unfamiliar with.

    And lastly, anyone who uses anything in this guide, even if it's just a little bit, so that my writing it wasn't a complete waste of time.
    Last edited by blankaex; 4th February 2013 at 04:47 PM.



  2. #2
    Too cool for bot zapping Clockwork's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blankaex View Post
    This is the job advancement at level 55. You get Flash Jump here, 15 levels before everyone else.
    Wild Hunter gets it at level 10 and Night Walker gets it at level 30. I'm not sure when Dawn Warrior gets it but I believe it's also level 30. =P

    Anyway, good guide so far. A lot of spoilers though. Feels a bit short but I guess that's because you're still working on it.






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  3. #3
    IAちゃんまじかわイア blankaex's Avatar
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    Too many jobs have Flash Jump. I remember when it was just Hermits. I'll patch that up. And yeah, it's not very long. I'm still trying to work on that. Probably will add some more images or something to make it look longer. And spoilers only where necessary, IMO. I like 20 more spoilers before I revised it.



  4. #4
    Phantom Watch Omar Ranger's Avatar
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    Sooo is this to be a new main thread because Neo's isn't sufficient or just because you wanted to write a guide? Also archers get a flash jump knock-off at lvl 30. Heh.
    Spoiler!

    Spoiler!

    Quote Originally Posted by kaglover1 View Post
    But now I'm like screw that, I'm skipping to the part where Bella finally combines with Edward

  5. #5
    IAちゃんまじかわイア blankaex's Avatar
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    Just because I wanted to write a guide. And geez, everyone gets Flash Jump nowadays. That's both good and bad. But I recall Hermits being exceptionally annoyed when Bandits got Flash Jump.



  6. #6
    Too cool for bot zapping Clockwork's Avatar
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    Isn't Neo's out-dated now? And I totally forgot about archers having double jump.






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  7. #7
    Slime Bathis's Avatar
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    You should definitely mention Iron Mutae and C-2 Roids/Huroids for the 75-90 phase since especially on the more populated servers it's a great alternative.
    Bathis - 13x Ice/Lightning Archmage
    Level 130 [X ] - Level 140 [ ] - 10K minimum range [ ] - 30% int from eq [ ]

    Signature made by Blankaex

  8. #8
    IAちゃんまじかわイア blankaex's Avatar
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    I'm adding a list of popular training locations at the end. I'll probably do that next update, since I have zero experience with 4th job. And I'm not sure about the up-to-date-ness of Neo's guide, but it's only been updated to Chaos, and I've noticed one or two extremely minor (and negative) changes to DB skills with Ascension.



  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clockwork View Post
    Isn't Neo's out-dated now? And I totally forgot about archers having double jump.






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    Not entirely, but he's no longer active on the forum to my knowledge and hasn't updated his guide for a long time.

    On topic:
    Guide looks good! Make sure you double check the actual post to fix up any formatting errors; you seem to have a few broken [CODE] tags in each of your "builds" sections. They don't work inside [SPOILER] tags I believe.

    bolt202/veil225/feint200

  10. #10
    Too cool for bot zapping Clockwork's Avatar
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    Code tags work inside spoilers. Just need to make sure to finish it with [/CODE]. Just missing the / else it would be fine.






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