The Comprehensive Blademaster Guide (Unofficial)


A Little Background Info

Welcome to my work in progress. The name is EzCheez, or RoflLobster, or sometimes even DrunkbobNopants, depending on if you have played with me in other games. Ive been following HG:L for a good 2 years now, played the beta extensively (a little too much would probably be a better phrase), and now have a level 50 SC Blademaster, and a level 21 HCE Blademaster. My experience mainly derives from my criticalhit focused builds, but I try to keep current on all possible Blademaster templates and information. Im writing this guide mainly because of the lack of consolidated information on the Blademaster, and to hopefully put an end to the many misconceptions people have on the Blademaster. Writing this guide has required a lot of testing, and has actually helped me learn quite a bit about the mechanics of both the Blademaster, and HG:L in general. My three main goals of this guide are:

1) To provide a basic overview of the Blademaster. What are we good at? What do we struggle with? What should we be on the lookout for? How do we compare versus the other factions? Why pick a Blademaster in the first place?

2) To provide a reference of any and all information pertaining to the Blademaster, such as skill tables, equipment, attributes, dps comparisons, and equations. This is for all of you number crunchers who want everything to beperfect before you start your toon.

3) To provide an indepth analysis of all attributes of the Blademaster. I want to provide answers to questions such as: What skills work better in situation A as opposed to B? What skills to avoid? Is there an endall best build? Do I have to dualwield? What equipment should I lookout for when using X skills? Where do I put my points?


Please remember that this is unfinished. Some information may be missing, wrong, or missworded. Any and all recommendations are encouraged. This is my first serious guide, so if something just seems off, let me know and Ill change it up.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Section I: Introduction
Here I will be discussing what makes the Blademaster a unique toon to play, and why you should play it. Other topics I will touch upon are general build information, playstyle, and build focus before making your character.
Section II: Attributes
This section will detail upon how attributes affect the Blademaster, possible stat point allocations, and general starting statistics.
Section III: Skills
Here you will find an indepth description of all of the Blademaster skills with varying statistics and personal remarks on the usefulness of each skill.
Section IV: Equipment
A conglomeration of weapons, armor, mods, elemental effects, what to look for, and pretty much anything relating to gear can be found in this section.
Section V: Gameplay
Here I will be expanding upon play styles I touched upon in the introduction, giving tips on what to do in tough situations, and explaining how your skills, attributes, and gear will affect your character as a whole while you progress through the game.
Section VI: Possible Builds, Q & A, and Links
All miscellaneous information such as common questions, links to other helpful information, possible builds, and anything else that doesnt fit in the other sections will be put here.


I: Introduction


What are Blademasters?

Blademasters are Hellgate:Londons highdps (damage per second) melee class. Most skills are focused on augmenting your ability to deal this damage, giving the mindset of the best defense is a great offense. Blademasters, or BMs for short, have many aspects that really set us apart from the Guardian, and every other class. Here are a few:

One is our unique ability to dualwield swords with the use of the skill Matched Blades, available at level 5. This skill allows us to forego such silly things as a shield or a gun, in favor of another nice big hunk of steel (or flames, lightning, and even bees!) to bash our unlucky foes with. More information on Matched Blades can be found in the skills section.

Secondly is our ability to dish out mass amounts of AoE (area of effect) damage. Skills like Sweeping Strike and Whirlwind turn our already impressive single target damage into all out AoE attacks, striking for full damage all targets within a 4m5m radius, thats 8m10m from tip to tip of your swords! Ouch.

Another is the unique Surge line of skills. These skills are charge up attacks that activate upon a successful kill, for a total of three charges per skill. This handy line provides the BM with some healing, enhanced critical hit chance, and a great boost to your movement speed. More detailed information on Surges is in the skills section.

Lastly, we have arguably the best maneuverability in the game. Skills such as Surge of Speed and Whirlwind grant an impressive movement speed boost while active. This lets us dash in and out of combat in a moments notice. We also have the skills Charge and Path of Righteousness. Charge lets us instantly teleport to a targeted opponent for some increased damage, while Path of Righteousness (PoR) lets us completely pass through packs of enemies, and even solid walls, damaging everything in our wake. This great variety of travel skills lets us quickly travel from one pack of enemies to the next, meaning BMs will always see a constant stream of action!

Pros vs. Cons

Pros
High DPS: We have arguably the best damage in the game when dualwielding with high strength.
Inyourfacesliceanddiceaction: BM is just a fun class to play. Something about wielding 2 swords and swinging like a madman on hordes of enemies just makes you smile a little inside
High Mobility: Other classes have 12 skills to help them get around, but we get 4. This means that nobody will be escaping our high damage attacks, and also gives us the option to turntail when in danger.
Can wear heavy armor: Although we dont have the defensive skills of the Guardian, we can still wear any armor they can, even a shield. If you find the right gear, you can make your BM into quite a tank.

Cons
Squishy for a melee class: Even though we have the ability to wear a shield, most will opt for dualwielding. Since we are a melee class we will almost always be in the thick of mobs of enemies, meaning well almost always be taking a pounding. Even with skills such as Surge of Restoration, and Aura of Deflection, we still dont survive very long. If you are not a fan of health injectors, BM is probably not the way to go.
Some skills need improvement: Skills such as the Surge line, Sword of Authority, Onslaught, Path of Righteousness, and Thorns all need some work to really be effective. More information on these is in the skills section.
Doesnt excel at ranged combat: Kind of goes without saying, but if you enjoy fighting from a distance, BM is probably not the best class to go. On the other hand, guntoting and swordthrowing BM builds are viable, just not quite as effective as of yet.
Very stat needy: By mid to late game, you will be struggling to equip your best gear. BMs require high strength, stamina, and willpower to be effective. Matched Blades helps a little, but only to equip that second sword.

Playstyle

Ok, so you have decided you want to play as a Blademaster (good decision ). Now you must ask yourself, how do you want to play?

The BM is definitely designed for a more aggressive style of play. With very little in terms of defensive skills, our main focus seems to be to kill the badguys before they can kill us. That being said, how you choose to use our offensive capabilities plays a major role in how you should allocate your skills, and your stats. Most will want to go straight for dual wielding, and will want to take advantage of our splash damage line. Some may opt to use a sword and shield instead of two swords, utilizing high direct damage, and our taunt skill, Call of the Chosen. Grapplers may have caught your fancy and you plan to use one for the entire game.

There are many possible ways to play the BM, none of them are wrong. My advice to you if this is your first BM is to play through the game till around level 25, without listening to the opinions of others, and find out what skills YOU like, and how YOU like to play. Try everything out. You can read descriptions all day long, but you really cant have a definitive idea of how something works until you see for yourself.

Once you decide what skills, equipment, and general playstyle you enjoy, then come to the forums and read the more indepth information, and decide what setups will be best for what you want to achieve with the BM. Do I want to PvP? Am I looking to play a throwbuild? What skills are more efficient? Do I plan on playing HC? What is the best direct damage skill for my setup?
These are the types of questions you should be asking yourself when creating your first serious BM.


II: Attributes


Starting Stats
Accuracy15
Strength25
Stamina20
Willpower15

What Each Stat Point Does

AccuracyAdds 2% to your critical damage per point (adds for both hands). Decreases the reticule of your ranged weapons (rocket pistols, later game machine pistols). Accuracy is useful for boosting your critical hit damage in high crit builds, useful in making a nontraditional Blademaster, such as a gunmaster, and certain weapon mods require accuracy (usually anything that adds to critical damage or chance.)
Personal thoughts: I would not recommend putting any points into this attribute except for very specialized builds. Accuracy is mostly covered by + all stat equipment.

StrengthAdds 1% to melee damage per point, and allows you to equip higher defense armors, as well as some swords. If wielding two swords, the added damage is added to both.
Personal thoughts: One of the three main attributes you should focus on. More damage means faster killing speed, and the faster monsters die, the less they can hit you. Remember that the strength benefit is added for both hands while dualwielding, making it twice as effective.

StaminaEach point in this stat increases your Health Pool by 5 points. It also determines how much gear you will wear.
Personal thoughts: Another very important attribute. At higher levels, most armor mods, including the +all attribute mod found on armors, requires high stamina feed to wield. Also, a high health pool synergizes well with Surge of Restoration if you plan on using it, more info on that later in the guide.

WillpowerEach point in Willpower adds 2 Power to your total power pool and 3 Power Regen/minute. It also determines requirement costs for many mods (relics, batteries, fuels) and most swords.
Personal thoughts: In most games, melee classes usually tend to avoid high power pools. Not so much with HG:L. Late game, a high power pool is required to keep up with the high power requirement of skills. Also, high level swords can cost 100 or more willpower to equip, and wielding two swords, thats 200 required willpower feed! Matched Blades helps, but you will definitely need a good amount of points into willpower to be efficient in most builds. A larger power pool is not as needed if you plan on maxing out Aura of Power.


Starting Aspects

Health 100
Power Pool 70
Power Regeneration 165/minute
Resistances 50 All Elemental (87 stun with starter shield equipped)
Starting Skill Sword of Reckoning


PerLevel Increments

Health Pool Increase per Level 10
Health Pool Increase per Stamina Point 5
Power Pool Increase per Level 0
Power Pool Increase per Willpower Point 2
Power Regen Increase per Level 0
Power Regen Increase per Willpower Point 3/minute
Resistance Increase per Level 10 All Elemental
Stat Point Allocations per Level 5
Total Stat Point Allocations from Leveling 245*

*Please note that there are bonus stat points you can get from completing quests.

Where do I put my stat points?

This is one of the most common questions asked for any faction. The answer is not an easy one. Some will say you should put a set amount of points in each stat every level. Some will say put all five points in one stat and alternate. My personal recommendation is to save most of your stat points and place them when needed for gear.

All of these are viable options, each having their pros and cons. I will attempt to explain possible stat point allocations and their positive and negative effects on your character as you play through the game.

Preset allocations

Many will advise you to put your points into certain attributes at a set amount per level. The general recommendation is:
0, 2, 2, 1, or 0 in accuracy, 2 in strength, 2 in stamina, and 1 in willpower. There are many variations to this preset manner of spending points, but I will only be describing this one for generality purposes. This stat placement provides you with a good amount of strength and stamina every level, and a little bit of power as well.

The good thing is you are seeing an immediate improvement every time you level up. You are hitting 2% harder, getting 10 more hp, and getting 2 more to your power pool. This setup also allows you to equip most generic equipment.

The downside of the setup is that later on down the line, you may be finding you dont have enough stamina or willpower to equip your most powerful gear. Late game armor with the popular + all attributes mod require a lot of stamina to wear. Late game swords that deal splash damage or have mod slots can cost upwards of 100 will per sword, not including the mods! Late game armors with high armor values can also require very high strength. With a preset method of placement for your gear, you may have to settle for the lowerend stuff.

Saving stat points

Some, including myself, advise to save most of your stat points, mainly using them only to equip new gear. I personally save a maximum of 25 points at a time, and usually just dump the rest into strength or stamina if I feel I need some more health or damage.

The upside of this strategy is that you will almost always be able to wear any new gear that drops, by simply adding your saved points into the attribute you need. This allows you to be very flexible with your gear.

The downside is twofold. One, you arent seeing the immediate improvement every level as you would with a preset allocation. This downside doesnt seem to be much of a difference in normal play though, but in HC or HCE, you may need every stat you can get at any point in the game. The other downside is, if you find a piece of gear that requires a lot of points in one stat, then later find a piece of gear that is better, and requires less points into that stat, you have now wasted points you didnt need to waste. I am finding this to be particularly true for my willpower feed. I spent many points in will to equip splash swords with multiple mod slots during mid game. Now at end game, I prefer direct damage swords with no mod slots and low willpower requirements. With my previous setup, I used almost every point of willfeed I had. With my current setup, I have more than half a willpower pool. I wasted a good 50 points into willpower that could have been spent in stamina or strength. Although, these 50 points into willpower provide me with a bigger pool to spam my skills with, so its not entirely a bad thing.

Basically, it is up to you to decide. Generally I would recommend preset allocations to newer players, or for those playing in HC or Elite modes. I would recommend the saving method for players planning on doing some conventional PvE, and for those looking to PvP.


III: Skills


General Information
Skills are listed in order as if you are looking at your character sheet from the top left, then working your way down the trees as you progress right.
The exact scaling for Thorns and Aura of the Elements has yet to be found. For now minimum and maximum values will be used from a level 50 character till the % is determined.
Many of the power cost listings are off, and will be updated as soon as I have the information.

Surges: General Description
The surge line is a line of skills that proc if and only if scoring the killing blow with this skill.
The killing blow can only be achieved with a sword.
Each surge has 3 charges, increasing the effect of the surge with each successive kill.
Surges last for 12 seconds with 0/7 levels in Surge Mastery, and 24.6 seconds with 7 /7 in Surge Mastery.
Every kill with a surge skill restarts the timer to 0.
Surges only activate onkill, so you only lose power when making the kill.
Surges can work with guns, as long as the killing blow is achieved with a sword.
Multiple surges can be active at once, but each are on independent timers, so if you want to keep multiple surges active at once, you must alternate kills with the different surges.


Personal Opinion:
The surge line is overlooked by many players, mainly because of its limited uses in large boss fights and in PvP. However, consider this before giving surges the thumbs down. How much time are you actually investing versus bosses, as opposed to fighting mobs of enemies? Most BMs will be fighting bosses for a very small portion of their playtime. The only real boss to do runs on is Shulgoth, and he has plenty of surrounding minions to keep your surges up with. Also, the argument that surges arent usable while in parties is pretty flawed as well. I usually travel in a party of 3, and have no problems last hitting to keep my Surge of Wrath up. We have higher damage than most classes; its not hard to get kills with normal attacks, even in parties. The only real downside I see to surges is their usefulness in PvP, which admittedly is fairly small.

Surge of Restoration
Description: This skill restores health based on a % of your maximum health per minute, increasing with each charge level. Red streams circle you horizontally at the waist for each level of this skill.
Level Requirement: 1
Prerequisites: None.
Damage type: None.
Rate of use: No cooldown
Cast Time: Dependant on sword speed.
Delay before another skill can be used: None.
Starting Power Cost: 8 (at character level 1)
Increased Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.26
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Increased health regeneration per minute.
(skill level 1 Charge 1: 17% / min | 0 .28% / sec, Charge 3: 52% / min | 0.87% / sec)
(skill level 10 Charge 1: Charge 1: 44% / min | 0.73% / sec, Charge 3: 132% / min | 2.2% / sec)
Other information:
Best used in high stamina/health builds, as it is percent based.
Heals while poisoned
The ingame tooltip is misleading stating an exact number. This number is exactly how much health you will be healed per minute. Note this number changes as your maximum health changes
Personal notes:
Dont rely on this skill to heal midbattle, its better suited to heal in between battles or when fighting less dangerous mobs
Many underestimate the usefulness of a 2.2% heal per second. If you feel you need some additional healing, this skill helps a lot.

Surge of Wrath
Description: Adds to critical hit chance to both hands, increasing with each charge level. White streams circle you horizontally at the waist for each level of this skill.
Level Requirement: 10
Prerequisites: 2 in Surge of Restoration
Damage type: None.
Rate of use: No cooldown
Cast Time: Negligible: Dependant on sword speed
Delay before another skill can be used: None
Starting Power Cost: 11.7 (at character level 10)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.294
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Increased critical chance.
(skill level 1 Charge 1: Increased crit chance by 2% , Charge 3: Increased crit chance by 6% )
(skill level 10 Charge 1: Increased crit chance by 7% , Charge 3: Increased crit chance by 21% )
Other information:
Best used in a high critical hit damage build. Gear that adds to accuracy or weapon mods that add to critical hit damage will augment this skills usefulness greatly.
Personal notes:
Another overlooked skill, mainly because it is in the surge line. If you can get your critical damage high enough, an increased 21% chance to deal additional 400500% damage is nothing to scoff at.

Surge of Speed
Description: Adds to your movement speed, increasing with each charge level. Grey streams circle you horizontally at the waist for each level of this skill.
Level Requirement: 15
Prerequisites: 3 in Surge of Wrath, 2 in Surge of Restoration
Damage type: None.
Rate of use: No cooldown
Cast Time: negligible: Dependant on sword speed
Delay before another skill can be used: None
Starting Power Cost: 14.6 (at character level 15)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.326
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Increased velocity bonus for charges 1 2 and 3 as 3% , 6% , and 9% respectively per level.
(skill level 1 Charge 1: Increased velocity by 20% , Charge 3: Increased velocity by 40% )
(skill level 10 Charge 1: Increased velocity by 47% , Charge 3: Increased velocity by 121% )
Other information:
While active, Sprint and Adrenaline Pills cannot be used.
Very helpful in dodging ranged attacks, traveling from pack to pack of enemies, catching fleeing opponents, and running away when in danger.
Personal notes:
A very fun skill to have. Ive only tested it up to level 4 seriously, but this skill at its third charge provides you with a constant nearsprint speed. If you max this skill, you could forgo ever having to use sprint or an adrenaline pack again.

Surge Mastery
Description: Adds to the duration of your surges by a given % per level.
Level Requirement: 25
Prerequisites: 3 in Surge of Speed, 3 in Surge of Wrath, 2 in Surge of Restoration
Damage type: Passive.
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: n/a
Benefit from skill addition: Increased surge duration. (15% per level for a total of 105% )
Other information:
At level 7, increases surge duration to a total of 24.6 seconds.
Personal notes:
A great skill if you are running a surge heavy build. The 8 point prerequisite is pretty steep though, meaning if you are using this skill, you should probably just go all the way with it.


Taunts: General Description:
Fear and taunt have no effect in PvP.


Call of the Chosen
Description: Taunts the current target your reticule is over and brings it to melee range. Also applies the fear status on monsters within a given radius of the target.
Level Requirement: 10
Prerequisites: None.
Damage type: None.
Rate of use: Every 3.0 seconds.
Cast Time: Instant.
Delay before another skill can be used: none (except this skill).
Starting Power Cost: 26 (at character level 10)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.652
Range: 12m
Benefit from skill addition: Increased fear radius around target and increased fear duration.
(Skill level 1: 6 meters for 7 seconds.) (Skill level 10: 13m meters for 14 seconds)
Other information:
Useful for calling out single enemies one at a time.
Brings flying targets to melee range
Fear and taunt strengths weaken at higher levels, requiring points in Angelic Orator to remain as effective.
Personal notes:
This skill is great for separating packs of dangerous enemies. Later on, packs of Blade Sayers and Brutes can be pretty deadly. This skill lets you focus on them one at a time. Just remember to invest some points into Angelic Orator to keep this skill useful.
HC and Elite players should learn to love this skill.

Angelic Orator
Description: Increases effects of Call of the Chosen. Increases the taunt and fear attack strengths and decreases enemy attack damage of the taunted foe by a % .
Level Requirement: 20
Prerequisites: 3 in Call of the Chosen
Damage type: Passive
Rate of use: Every n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: n/a
Benefit from skill addition: Increases fear and taunt strength and increases the enemy attack damage debuff.
(Skill level 1: Enemy damage reduced by 2% , Fear and Taunt strength increased by 17% .)
(Skill level 10: Enemy damage reduced by 20% , Fear and Taunt strength increased by 120% )
Other information:
Increases the usefulness of Call of the Chosen passively
If you plan to use Call of the Chosen in later levels, this skill is almost required.
The damage debuff is fairly negligible, but with Call of the Chosen at level 10, it lasts for 14 seconds, with a 3 second cool down, decent.

Ranged Skills: General Information
Heavens Arc and Crosscutter can be used while shocked.
Crosscutter and Sword Typhoon only use damage from the mainhand sword, so consider a shield while using these skills.
It is believed that Crosscutter and Sword Typhoon are not properly applying the benefits of strength. (confirmation?)

Heavens Arc
Description: Leaps into the air and strikes flying foes, providing additional horizontal range and additional damage.
Level Requirement: 5
Prerequisites: None
Damage type: Direct (splash damage can be applied with splash swords)
Rate of use: Time it takes to jump and to hit the ground (~ 1 second)
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: ~1 second
Starting Power Cost: 33.3 (at character level 10)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.816
Range: 2m (melee) horizontally, ~8m vertically.
Benefit from skill addition: Increases damage added per level.
(Skill level 1: 100% increased damage)
(Skill level 10: 280% increased damage)
Other information:
Can be used while shocked.
It only does damage vs. flying opponents
Seems to hit out of normal melee range sometimes
Very low power cost vs. other damage skills
Personal notes:
Its a 1pointwonder in my opinion. Some say to try and find this skill on an offhand weapon and not put any points into it. By doing this though, you are gimping your damage vs. flying targets, and must always be in search of decent +Heavens Arc weapons as you level. Another argument against it is to just grab a grappler, which isnt a bad decision any many cases.

Crosscutter
Description: Throws your mainhand sword at a target enemy for 50% additional damage (without Sword Master)
Level Requirement: 10
Prerequisites: None
Damage type: Direct (splash damage can be applied with splash swords)
Rate of use: Level 1: every 6 seconds.
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 32.5 (at character level 10)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.816
Range: 20m.
Benefit from skill addition: Decreases cooldown per level per level.
(Skill level 1: every 6 seconds) (Skill level 10: every 1.3 seconds)
Other information:
Only applies the damage from your mainhand sword
Splash damage is applied only around the area of your target
Useful for hitting running foes or flyers
Can be used while shocked.
Does not apply enhanced damage from strength.
Personal notes:
This skill really only shines when you have invested well into both this and Sword Master. With a good amount of points, you are doing a 20m +150% damage attack every 1.5 seconds though. Its great versus those annoying warpers, and maybe even a viable PvP skill.

Sword Master
Description: Increases % damage done by throwingsword skills passively.
Level Requirement: 20
Prerequisites: 1 in Crosscutter
Damage type: passive
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: n/a
Benefit from skill addition: Increases damage by 15% per level.
(Skill level 1: 15% ) (Skill level 10: 150% )
Other information:
Adds damage to both Crosscutter and Sword Typhoon

Sword Typhoon
Description: Spins around in place throwing shards that deal 100% of your mainhand swords damage (with 0/10 into Sword Master) in every direction around the Blademaster (similar to how a nova works).
Level Requirement: 30
Prerequisites: 1 in Crosscutter and 1 in Sword Mastery
Damage type: Direct/AoE (additional AoE can applied from splash damage swords)
Rate of use: Every 20 seconds.
Cast Time: Instant.
Delay before another skill can be used: none.
Starting Power Cost: 78.4 (at character level 30)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~1.304
Starting Range: 16.8m.
Benefit from skill addition: Increases number of shards thrown by 4 and increases throw range by 1.8m.
(Skill level 1: 12 shards at 16.8m) (Skill level 7: 36 shards thrown at 27.6m)
Other information:
Splash damage is applied only around the target the shard hits
Multiple shards can hit the same target.
Takes damage and effects from the mainhand sword only.
Does not apply enhanced damage from strength.
Level Requirement:
A pretty cool skill, but with a 20 second recharge, it isnt something you can base your build on. The primary use of this skill is to take out packs of spread out enemies in one fell swoop.

Direct Damage Skills: General Information
A line that I believe needs some serious improvement.
Sword of Justice at higher levels of strength currently outdamages Sword of Reckoning by a wide margin. I believe a direct damage attack should always do more damage than an attack that can attack multiple targets, and has the added benefit of being able to proc more SFX, and crit more often.
Sword of Authority has a horrid animation time, making the previous Sword of Reckoning always more damaging, and useful.
Hamper seems to be the most balanced skill in this line, and I personally have no problem with it.

Sword of Reckoning
Description: Swings your sword(s) in a vertical motion, dealing enhanced damage.
Level Requirement: 1
Prerequisites : None, starting skill.
Damage type: Direct (splash damage can be applied with splash swords)
Rate of use: Dependant on weapon speed.
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 16 (at character level 1)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.522
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Increases enhanced damage.
(Skill level 1: 100% Increased damage) (Skill level 10: 235% Increased damage)
Other information
Does increased damage, not a % of your weapons damage. That means at level 10, with a sword that does 100 damage, you will be doing 335 damage, instead of 235 damage.
Costs about 25% less power than Sword of Justice.
Slightly faster than Sword of Justice (SoJ) use rate wise.
Provides superior damage to SoJ per use only at early levels with low strength. As your strength grows, SoJ becomes far superior to this skill damagewise. A spreadsheet calculating the damage differences at various levels of strength can be found here.
Swing rates per minute for this skill with varying sword speeds are as follows:
Very Fast: 93
Fast: 86
Normal: 86
Slow: 81
Very Slow: 76
Personal notes:
Although inferior damage wise to its AoE tree counterpart, SoJ, this skill is still useful. The animation is faster than SoJs, so you can get a quick hit off and continue moving, giving you a little more maneuverability. This skill also gives a sort of animation cancel. This means you can do a normal swing and immediately use SoR to do a sort of 2hit combo for added damage.


Sword of Authority
Description: Jumps into the air and smashes your sword(s) down upon your target for an added 500% damage.
Level Requirement: 15
Prerequisites: 5 in Sword of Reckoning.
Damage type: Direct (splash damage can be applied with splash swords)
Rate of use: Every 10 seconds (at level1)
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: ~2.5 seconds
Starting Power Cost: 51.1 (at character level 15)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~1.142
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Decreased cool down.
(Skill level 1: every 10 seconds) (Skill level 10: every 4.3 seconds)
Other information
Is not effected by weapon speed
Has a slightly cumbersome attack animation that takes around 2.5 seconds to complete
Personal notes:
Just not a skill I can recommend at the moment. Hopefully they will do some balancing with it.

Hamper
Description: Strikes a single target and inflicts decreased movement speed and decreased armor.
Level Requirement: 25
Prerequisites : 5 in Sword of Reckoning, 1 in Sword of Authority.
Damage type: Direct (splash damage will not apply the condition to multiple targets)
Rate of use: Dependant on weapon speed
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost : 39.6 (at character level 25)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.718
Range: 2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Additional decrease in enemy move speed and armor.
(Skill level 1: Movement decreased by 25% , armor decreased by 20% )
(Skill level 10: Movement decreased by 70% , armor decreased by 56% )
Other information
This skill has no cool down time.
Great vs. bosses/high hp opponents
Great in PvP
Personal notes:
The only downside is the 6 prerequisite points required for this skill. If you arent using SoR as your main attack, try to find this skill on a weapon. The only other time I could highly recommend this skill is for PvP builds

Charge
Description : Teleports to and strikes opponent for 20% additional damage.
Level Requirement: 5
Prerequisites: 2 in Sword of Reckoning.
Damage type: Direct (splash damage can be applied with splash swords)
Rate of use: Every 15 seconds (at level 1)
Cast Time: Instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 33.9 (at character level 5)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.978
Range: ~22m
Benefit from skill addition: Decreased cool down.
(Skill level 1: every 15 seconds)(Skill level 10: Every 5.3 seconds)
Other information
Great skill for: catching fleeing foes, opening an attack, traveling from one pack of enemies to the next.
I would highly recommend 1 point into this skill.
Personal notes:
Additional points arent recommended accept for PvP builds, or to advance further into the Charge line of skills,

Onslaught
Description: Adds additional shield overload when attacking foes with Charge or Path of Righteousness..
Level Requirement: 20
Prerequisites : 2 in Sword of Reckoning, 3 in Charge.
Damage type: passive
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: n/a
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the amount of shield overload.
(Skill level 1: 40% ) (Skill level 10: 175% )
Other information:
Personal notes:
Personally, I dont like this skill very much. Blademasters already have very high shield overload from inherent sword properties, and many focus on getting shield penetration to avoid dealing with shields altogether.
Could be useful with Path of Righteousness overloading all enemy shields in your wake.
Really you should only be getting this skill if you are using swords with low shield overload, or for the prerequisite for Path of Righteousness.

Path of Righteousness
Descriptions: Blinks 15m directly in front of you, damaging all enemies in its path.
Level Requirement: 30
Prerequisites: 2 in Sword of Reckoning, 3 in Charge, 3 in Onslaught.
Damage type: AoE (straight line, ~4m diameter)
Rate of use: Every 9.5 seconds (at level 1)
Cast Time: instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 68.6 (at character level 30)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~1.142
Range: ~15m
Benefit from skill addition: Decreases the cool down.
(Skill level 1: Every 9.5 seconds) (Skill level 10: 4.3 seconds)
Other information
Blink function is buggy. Sometimes only puts you less than 5 meters ahead. Usually works when used vs. groups of enemies
Will work least in areas with differing elevations (stairs, hills)
Can pass through some walls
Useful for traveling through tightly packed groups of enemies in small corridors. Also great for setting up a WW or other AoE attacks
Does not share cool downs with any other skills
Currently does very low damage because it is only using damage from the mainhand sword. This is a known bug and is being worked on by FSS
Personal notes:
Although this skill is pretty buggy at the moment, it is still a pretty decent skill to position yourself for your damaging attack, to get around tough mobs, and it can even get you unstuck!


AoE Skills: General Description:
A very handy line of skills that enable you to take on larger groups with ease.
Has the highest damage direct damage skill as well.
Sweeping Strike and Whirlwind convert direct damage directly into AoE damage. This means that swords with the highest possible damage (usually direct damage swords) are best used with these skills.
It is believed that splash damage weapons to not apply their splash effects on every enemy hit with Sweeping Strike and Whirlwind. The consensus is that if the weapon has both splash and direct damage, this number is added up, and is applied once to every enemy in the vicinity of your attacks.

Sword of Justice
Description: Swings your sword(s) 3 times in rapid succession, but with reduced damage.
Level Requirement: 1
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: Direct or AoE, depending on number of enemies surrounding you (splash damage can be applied with splash weapons)
Rate of use: Based on weapon speed
Cast Time: instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 20 (at character level 1)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.652
Range: ~2m (melee)
Benefit from skill addition: Increases damage.
(Skill level 1: Swing damage reduced by 71% )(Skill level 10: Swing damage reduced by 35% )
Other information
Great for applying damage effects (ignite, phase, stun).
Looks low in damage on paper without figuring in strength.
With high levels of strength, surpasses Sword of Reckoning in damage done per use by a wide margin. A spreadsheet calculating the damage differences at various levels of strength can be found here.
Costs ~25% more power then Sword of Reckoning.
Has a slightly slower use rate than Sword of Reckoning
Swing rates per minute for this skill with varying sword speeds are as follows:
Very Fast: 86
Fast: 81
Normal: 81
Slow: 76
Very Slow: 71
Personal notes:
Right now this skill is probably your best bet if you are looking for pure late game DPS. I hate the cookiecutter mentality, but if you are looking for efficiency in a spamable skill, this one is the way to go. Something to note: every skill point into this skill is the equivalent in damage increase to what 4 strength would provide. Id say 2/10 for this skill, as it sees most of its improvement from additional strength.


Sweeping Strike
Description: Swings your sword(s) in a full circle, doing +50% enhanced damage to all monsters in range.
Level Requirement: 10
Prerequisites: 2 in Sword of Justice.
Damage type: AoE (All monsters are hit for full sword damage)
Rate of use: Every 10 seconds (at skill level 1)
Cast Time: instant
Delay before another skill can be used: none
Starting Power Cost: 36.5 (at character level 15)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~.816
Range: ~4m (in all directions)
Benefit from skill addition: Reduces the cool down.
(Skill level 1: every 10 seconds)(Skill level 10: every 3.5 seconds)
Other information:
Has a 4m AoE, twice the range of a regular melee swing.
Great vs. packs of weaker enemies
Believed to not apply splash damage.
Personal notes:
Although a useful skill, I recommend only 5 points for the prerequisite for Whirlwind if you plan to get it.

Whirlwind
Description: Swings your sword(s) in a constant circular motion, giving you a movespeed bonus and modifies all of your damage to splash for 4 seconds.
Level Requirement: 30
Prerequisites: 2 in Sword of Justice, 5 in Sweeping Strike.
Damage type: AoE (All monsters are hit for full sword(s) damage)
Rate of use: Every 20 seconds
Cast Time: instant
Delay before another skill can be used: ~2 seconds for all damagetype attacks (skills such as Sprint and Call of the Chosen still work) This delay seems to be shorter with fasterswinging swords.
Starting Power Cost: 78.4 (at character level 30)
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: ~1.304
Range: ~5m (in all directions, both vertically AND horizontally.
Benefit from skill addition: Enhances movespeed by 10% per level.
(Skill level 1: Increase of 70% )(Skill level 10: Increase of 160% )
Other information:
Its range is 5m in all directions, more than double the range of a normal melee swing.
Attack speed seems to be exactly the same as your current weapon swing rate.
You will always do the same number attacks, no matter what weapon speed. With faster weapons, you will complete this number of attacks faster, and the last ~1 second of WW will deal no damage. With slower weapons, the hits are more spaced out, and you will do your last hit at about the end of the WW.
Personal notes:
Great for taking out large packs of enemies, both clustered and spread out.
If you use Sprint immediately after the skill is done, you can avoid the attack skill use delay.
I recommend only 1 point in this skill, since the only thing that increases is the movespeed bonus. Some may say to try and find this on a weapon, but that severely limits the possible uses of this skill, and personally I think its too good to pass up if using this line of skills.

Matched Blades
Description: This skill enables the BM to wield 2 swords at once. Each sword will only do 75% of its base damage, to be a total increase in base damage of 150% . This skill also reduces your will feed. A description and example of willfeed can be found here.
Level Requirement: 5
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: n/a
Benefit from skill addition: Further reduces will feed.
(Skill level 1: feed decreased by 24)(Skill level 8: feed decreased by 108)
Other information:
Provides willfeed reduction even if you are not wielding 2 swords.
I would recommend multiple points for almost every BM build.
Physical damage swords require less willfeed than other elemental swords, meaning if you plan to use all physical based swords less points will be needed into this skill.
Although your base damage on the sword is decreased by 25% , strength still applies in full. So 1 sword with 100 damage while you have 100 strength will do 200 damage. Two of these swords will do 150 damage together without strength, and 300 damage with strength. Thats a 66% increase when strength is factored, as opposed to a 50% increase when it is not. This increase only becomes larger with more points in strength.
Personal notes:
A pretty defining skill for the BM in its own right. This skill is almost required to be maxed in builds using swords with high SFX strength and numerous mod slots.
If you plan on going for a crit centered build, I would suggest only one point into this skill. This is because the current best swords for a critical hit focused build, Katanas and Massamune Nodachis, have a comparatively low will requirement, meaning you wont need the additional feed reduction from this skill as much.

Thorns
Description: Deals damage to melee attackers.
Level Requirement: 20
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: direct, passive
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: melee
Benefit from skill addition: Increases damage returned to melee attackers.
(Skill level 1: 11 Damage returned)(Skill level 10: 33 Damage returned)
Other information:
I am using the values at level 50 until the % increased per level is figured out.
Very strange level scaling, doesn't seem to be a direct pattern per skill point spent and perlevel increase.
This skill is not an aura, it is passive and always active.
This skill scales with your level.
The skill calculators listed return damage is WAY off in every category for this skill.
More testing needs to be done to see exactly what % increase per level the listed damage is.
Personal notes:
Right now, this skill seems pretty useless, and I can only recommend points into it when you have nothing else to put them in (not likely).

Auras: General Descrption
Only one aura can be active at once
They can be activated and deactivated with the push of a button
Aura range is a 10m radius around you (is this correct?)
Most auras applications grow more powerful as more monsters enter its radius (maximum of 8)
Aura of Deflection and Aura of Vengeance are the exceptions to this rule
They cannot be activated/deactivated while in the middle of an attack.

Aura of Power
Descriptions: Restores power based on a % of your maximum power pool per minute. This % increase is multiplied by every enemy in the radius of your aura (maximum of 8)
Level Requirement: 5
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: 10m
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the power gained per minute by 19% 20%
(Skill level 1: ~78% / minute, 1.3% / second)(Skill level 10: ~253% / minute, 4.22% / second)
Other information
The ingame tooltip is misleading stating an exact number. This number is exactly how much power you will gain per minute at your current maximum power level. Note this number changes as your maximum power changes
Enables you to just sell your power packs because you will hardly need them late game with this.
Personal notes:
A great skill for skillspamming builds. Many believe this is the only real option for a main aura. However, currently at level 48, never using this aura, I am getting by very well, and hardly ever have power problems. Power packs provide all the power I need for my Aura of Zeal build.


Aura of the Elements
Descriptions : Provides additional elemental attack strength based on a % of your current level. This number is multiplied by every enemy in the radius of your aura (maximum of 8)
Level Requirement:15
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: 10m
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the of elemental strength added by ?% . ( to be determined)
(Skill level 1:54 )(Skill level 10:126 )
Other information
I am using the values at level 50 until the % increased per level is figured out.
This skill scales with level
This skill needs more testing to determine the % increase per level
If you have a fire damage sword, but no ignite attack strength on this sword, this skill can grant you that chance, the same with all other elements.
Great for causing mass stun, phase, poison, shock, and ignite.
Personal notes:
This skill really starts to shine when using phase and stun type weapons. You can keep an entire pack of enemies stunned or phased for the duration of you pounding on them. Its also a decent boost versus bosses when you need a higher chance of landing that ignite.

Aura of Zeal
Description : Provides a base enhanced critical hit chance, as well as provides an additional 2% for every monster in the radius of your aura (maximum of 8).
Level Requirement:25
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: 10m
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the base critical hit chance by 1% for every level.
(Skill level 1: base enhanced crit rate 3% )(Skill level 10: base enhanced crit rate 12% )
Other information:
Does not scale with character level.
A decent boost to your DPS in high critdamage builds.
Adds the boost to both hands..
Great PvP skill.
Great alternative if you feel you do not need Aura of Power.
Personal notes:
Many people dont like the fact that the increase is only 1% per level. You have to remember though, that the 12% increased crit chance is always there as long as this skill is up, meaning it doesnt require a large amount of monsters to be in your aura radius to be effective.

Aura of Deflection
Description: Provides a chance of destroying projectiles that are fired beyond or within the auras radius before they hit you.
Level Requirement:15
Prerequisites: none.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use: n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: 10m
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the % chance to destroy the projectile by 10% .
(Skill level 1: 20% )(Skill level 4: 50% )
Other information:
This aura is party friendly because it gives a chance to destroy any projectile in the radius of this aura. If party members are standing within, or behind the radius of this aura, shots fired at them can also be destroyed.
Does not affect streaming attacks (to my knowledge)
Effectively gives you 50% more health versus most ranged attackers at level 4.
Great PvP skill.
Personal notes:
I find this skill to be very helpful in NM mode. When fighting in areas where many ranged attackers spawn, this skill helps keep your damage taken to a minimal level.

Aura of Vengeance
Descriptions: Provides a chance of deflecting projectiles that are fired beyond or within the auras radius before they hit you. Deflected projectiles do full damage.
Level Requirement:25
Prerequisites: 3 in Aura of Deflection.
Damage type: n/a
Rate of use : n/a
Cast Time: n/a
Delay before another skill can be used: n/a
Starting Power Cost: n/a
Increase Power Cost Per Character Level: n/a
Range: 10m
Benefit from skill addition: Increases the % chance to deflect the projectile by 7% .
(Skill level 1: 12% )(Skill level 4: 33% )
Other information:
Reflected shots automatically hit the attacker, instead of just bouncing off. (confirmation?)
This aura is party friendly because it gives a chance to deflect any projectile in the radius of this aura. If party members are standing within, or behind the radius of this aura, shots fired at them can also be deflected.
Does not effect streaming attacks.
Can be used in conjunction with another Blademaster using Aura of Deflection.
3 points into Aura of Deflection makes it hard to want to put points into this skill.
Effectively gives your 33% more health vs. ranged attackers at level 4.
Great PvP skill.




IV: Equipment

Weapons

The Basics

All swords have several basic properties that are universal. You can see these properties upon inspection of any given weapon. Here I will give a brief description of each property. I will only be focusing on sword aspects for the time being. For now, grapplers and other Templar guns will not be discussed in detail in this guide.

Damage Types

There are five distinct damage types in HG:L. Each damage type has the ability to cause its own special effect. Here is a general description of each effect, taken from the Guide to New Players. I modified the wording and included my own opinions for the purposes of this guide.

Phase: derived from Spectral Damage. A phased target receives 50% more damage, and deals 50% less damage.
Personal Thoughts: A great effect for the BM to look for on swords. Phasing a target increases our already great DPS by 50%, meaning faster kills. It also means monsters will be dealing 50% less damage to you. Its an excellent way of increasing our survivability without having to get more hp or armor.

Shock: derived from Electric Damage. A shocked opponent makes them unable to use most skills while under its duration.
Personal Thoughts: Not the most useful effect versus monsters. Very few monsters have special abilities that can be disabled by shock, and shock does little else besides disables skills. When applied on us, it can get quite annoying. Sprint, Heavens Arc, and Crosscutter are the only skills we can still use while shocked. This effect shines in PvP.

Stun: derived from Physical Damage. A stunned target is incapable of doing anything during the time they are stunned. You can stun multiple times in a row.
Personal Thoughts: A universally great effect. This keeps enemies in place, and keeps them from doing anything at all. Not many swords have inherent stun strength, so you may have to add this type yourself with the use of relics, fuels, or batteries. This effect is also very dangerous. Be weary of mobs with high chance to stun (Blade Sayers and Bruisers come to mind), these are some of the toughest monsters in the game.

Poison: derived from Toxic. A poisoned opponent receives damage over time and cannot heal.
Personal Thoughts: A mediocre damage type at best. The damage done by poison seems to be pretty minimal. I dont think anyone has figured out exactly how the amount of poison damage is applied yet. Maybe once this is figured out, we can start taking advantage of poison damage. Poison is great versus monsters that have regenerating attributes, but not much else. Versus us, it can be annoying, especially getting poisoned while low on health in the heat of battle. No health injectors spell death for BMs. Remember that Surge of Restoration can heal through poison though.

Ignite: derived from Fire Damage. An ignited opponent loses 5% of their maximum health per second for the duration.
Personal Thoughts: This effect is the bane of all high hp and armor enemies. Since it is percent based, its effect is the same versus every opponent. This is THE effect you want to have in tough boss fights. This can turn a 20 minute battle into a 1 minute battle, if you have high enough ignite attack strength.

More information on damage types can be found here.



Direct and Splash Damage

All swords either deal direct damage, splash damage, or a combination of both. The amount of direct or splash damage can be viewed on a weapon by holding right click on a weapon and letting go on see item details. Damage is the first stat listed on the left hand side.

A direct damage sword will deal its damage to only one target. This target is either the target in range that your cursor is over, or it will attack at random the closest monster in range if your cursor is not over an enemy.

Splash damage swords apply their damage the same way, but when the target monster is hit, all monsters within a ~2m radius (the range is listed on the weapons, ranging from 1.5m to 2.5m) of the target will be hit for the full damage of the splash attack.

Some swords can have a combination of both direct and splash damage. In this case, the damage is applied the same way. The direct damage is applied the target, then the splash damage is applied to the same target, which applies the splash damage to all enemies in the radius.

Say you have a sword that deals 2030 direct damage and 1520 splash damage. Your target enemy will receive the 2030 damage from the direct portion, then an additional 1520 damage from the splash portion. All enemies around your target will receive only 1520 damage.

In general, most direct damage weapons have higher base damage than splash weapons. This is for balance issues. If direct damage weapons did the same amount of damage as splash damage weapons, there would be no incentive to use direct over splashed. Direct damage weapons also tend to have enhanced critical hit chance/damage, higher elemental strength, and faster attack rate. There are exceptions to this, though.

Attack Rate

All swords have a listed rate of attack. Swords can have: very slow, slow, normal, fast, and very fast attack rates. Unfortunately, the swings per minute are not listed in game. Fortunately for you, I have found the swing rates with my handy dandy stop watch.
I timed in 1 minute intervals. A swing was still counted if it was completed before 60.3 seconds.

Swing Rates per minute and per second:

Very Fast: 93/m | 1.55/s
Fast: 86/m | 1.43/s
Normal: 81/m | 1.35/s
Slow: 76/m | 1.27/s
Very Slow: 71/m | 1.18/s

Your swing rate while dualwielding will always be based on the slower sword. That means if you have a very fast sword in one hand, and a very slow sword in the other, your swing rate will be very slow. The hand the weapon is in has no affect.

Another thing to note: The skills Sword of Justice and Sword of Reckoning are effected by your weapon speed. You can find the swing rates for these in the skills section.

Critical Chance

Critical chance is basically as it sounds, the chance that you have to land a critical hit. All characters start with a 1% chance to land a critical hit for each hand. Your total chance to land a critical hit for each and can be viewed on your character sheet by pressing k.

Some swords have an inherent chance to add to this critical hit chance. Swords such as the Fishgutter, Maramusa Katana, Righteous Star, and Nightblade all inherently add to your critical chance. Swords can also have attributes found by identifying them that can add to this chance.

The total critical hit chance for your sword can be viewed in the item inspection screen on the left side.

Critical hit chances for your sword are only applied to the hand your sword is in. If you have a sword in your right hand with 5% critical chance, and a sword in your left hand with 2%, your right hand critical chance will be 6%, while your left hand will be 3% (I am adding your inherent 1% chance to crit here).

Critical Damage

Critical damage is the amount of enhanced damage you will do when scoring a critical hit. In most games, a critical hit gives you a straight up 2x the damage. Not so in HG: L. Critical damage is determined solely upon factors that add to your % increased critical hit damage. Upon a critical hit, you will do your normal damage enhanced by the percent amount of critical damage you have for that hand. The 3 main factors that determine critical damage are:

1) Accuracy: Every point in accuracy increases your critical hit damage by 2% for both hands. Blademasters start with 15 accuracy, so our starting critical damage is 30% with no equipment on or additional points into accuracy. This means if a normal hit we do 10 damage, then on a critical hit we will do 13 damage (10 + 30% = 13).

2) Your sword: Every sword provides an inherent 50% enhanced critical damage. You can see this on your character sheet by viewing your critical damage with and without your sword equipped. Some swords provide additional inherent crit damage, such as katanas, which provide 150% critical damage. Critical damage from your sword only applies to the hand your sword is in.
Swords can also have attributes when you identify them that can add to critical damage.

3) Mods: Relics, batteries, and fuels can all have properties that add to your total critical damage. These mods can be socketed into your sword to increase this swords critical damage.

Critical hit damage is purely additive. So if you have 30 accuracy (60% crit damage), a normal sword (50% added crit damage), and a mod socketed into your sword that adds 50% to critical damage, your total critical damage for that hand will be 160% increased damage.

Range

All direct damage swords have a range of 2 meters, but splash swords can have a varying range from 1.5 to 2.5 meters. Not really much else to add on range.

Shield Overload

All swords come with inherent shield overload, ranging from 50% to 120%. A description of shield overload can be found here , and a thread discussing the usefulness of shield overload for the BM can be found here.



The Swords



In HG:L, the Templar have many different type of swords at their disposal. Some can hit multiple targets at once, some have very high damage, some can even cause ignite. The swords you choose play a valuable roll in how your Blademaster will function. Will you choose to take down high hp targets onebyone with high direct damage swords? Would you prefer to take down multiple enemies at a time? How about causing mass stun, phase and ignite? All of these options are possible, and more, depending on the swords you choose.

In this section, I will list every sword available to the BM. I will include every swords possible stats and my personal recommendations for the uses of each sword. You can find a link to a picture of each sword by clicking on the name of the weapon.

Swords will be categorized first by damage type, then by direct or splash, then by order of which you can find them in the game.

Because many stats can vary on the weapons, stats such as damage, interrupt strength, and inherent elemental strength will all be listed with ranges from very low, to very high, as compared to other weapons of the same level.

Stats such as critical chance, critical damage, shield overload, and attack rate can all be viewed by clicking on the picture link.

Note that there is a very limited number of NM type weapons as compared to the number of weapons found in Norm. Hopefully, FSS will be adding these types in later updates.

Physical Damage Swords
Physical damage swords tend to require more strength than most other sword types. They also tend to have slightly higher damage than other elemental sword of the same level.

Direct

Templar Broadsword
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Relic slots
Other Notes: This is the starter sword.
Personal thoughts: A decent early game sword. This type of sword can last you to around level 10 if you find a good one.

Fishgutter
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: None
Other Notes: First very fast sword you can get for a while, until the Nightblade and Katana.
Personal thoughts: Very fast swords can come in handy during early game, because you are 1hitting most enemies anyway. The critical damage and chance boost wont be very helpful till later in the game though.

Warts Peg Leg
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: None
Stat Requirements: Strength and Will
Other Notes:
This weapon can only be attained by completely Jimmys first quest in Holborn station.
Grants additional armor to your total rating. Every item level gives 5 additional armor (nanoforge will give +10 armor every level, because it upgrades items by 2 levels)
Can be found in Normal mode at ilvl 2 and can be upgraded to ilvl 12.
Can be found in NM mode at ilvl 32 and can be upgraded to ilvl 42
Personal thoughts: A surprisingly good weapon. It has high damage, crit chance, enhanced critical damage, great shield overload, and on top of all that, provides a boost to your armor that is about half of what most shields of the same level provide. The few downsides to this weapon are the slow attack speed, no mod slots, and can only be augmented 3 times. This is a great weapon to keep in a secondary weapon setup with a shield when in tough situations. Elite and HC players, this baby is a MUST.

Shauns Trusty Sidekick
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Very High
Maximum number of mod slots: None.
Other Notes:
This sword is a rare drop (blue) variety only.
I believe it can only drop from the named monster, Tubby Bastard, who can randomly spawn in the Holborn areas.
You cannot complete any Cricket Bat achievements with this weapon.
Multiple stats are different from the generic variety Cricket Bat
Personal thoughts:
If you have seen Shaun of the Dead, you should get a pretty good kick out of this weapon
It has surprisingly high damage and chance to crit.

Maramusa Katana
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: None
Other Notes:
Has both enhanced critical damage and critical chance.
Provides one of the highest singletarget damage you can get for this level (not factoring in elemental effects)
Personal thoughts: A decent sword for early game crit builds. Your critical damage and chance wont be very high at this point of the game, so those stats are not as useful. The low willrequirement is very appealing though. Personally, I found phase and ignite type swords to be more useful at this point in the game, but this type of weapon is still viable.

Holy Negotiator
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: Very High
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Relic slots
Other Notes:
Requires a decent amount of both strength and will
Personal thoughts: A great sword in general. High damage, inherent stun strength, 3 relic slots, nice interrupt strength, great shield overload. The only cons are its slow speed, and high requirements. I found a decent blue version of this sword and it carried me for a good 12 levels. I am very annoyed that there is no NM level equivalent.

Masamune Nodachi
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: None
Other Notes:
The NM equivalent of the Katana
Currently the highest direct damage sword in the game.
A great weapon for AoZ crit centered builds, as it provides +3% to crit chance and 150% critical damage.
Personal thoughts: This is probably the best late game weapon at the moment for most purposes. There is just no other sword that comes close to the damage on this, even with no mod slots. I would suggest for late game, having 1 weapon set of dual Nodachis, and another set with splash damage ignite and phase, like a Pyredge and a Hypermace.

Splash

Cricket Bat
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Very High
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic slot
Other Notes:
Can only be found in areas around Holborn and Covent Garden Stations.
Can be used to complete 2 Templaronly achievements.
Personal thoughts: A decent very low level weapon. Its hard to recommend this weapon, as the drop rate on them is very minimal, but then again, bashing zombies on teh head with a bat is pure win!

Shatterscythe
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Relic slots
Other Notes:
First real physical splash sword available.
Requires more strength than will.
Personal thoughts: A decent sword. If you are a more strength focused build, these will be easy to equip. Slap some increased physical strength mods in these, and you can keep packs of enemies stunned upon every swing. They also look pretty badass to boot.

Jagged Edge
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Very High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
Has higher splash damage than direct damage.
Personal thoughts: I never used this sword personally. The high interrupt strength and splash damage would allow you to mitigate a good portion of hits coming at you while doing great AoE damage.

Broadsaber
Interrupt Strength: Very High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
The NM equivalent of the Jagged Edge.
Has higher splash damage than direct damage.
Personal thoughts: I never used this sword personally. The high interrupt strength and splash damage would allow you to mitigate a good portion of hits coming at you while doing great AoE damage.


Toxic Damage
Note that some toxic swords have the added mod, damage of toxic effect. It is not known exactly how this modifies poison damage as of yet.

Direct

Corrupt Blade
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic, 2 Fuel
Other Notes:
4 total mod slots
Personal thoughts: Can be a decent sword to start out with. You can increase its damage by a pretty good amount if you find some decent mods to slap in there. If you dont have the mods, the low damage and no elemental attack strength on this sword makes it a hard one to want to use,

Nightblade
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
Has 5% chance to crit and an added 50% critical damage, making it useful for crittype builds early game.
One of the very few swords that require accuracy to wield.
Personal thoughts: Overlooked by many, this sword can rival or even exceed damage of the similar lvl Katana because of the 2 mod slots. The accuracy required to wield shouldnt be much of a problem because you usually wont be using your accuracy feed for anything else.

Steel Adder
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Very Low
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Fuel slots
Other Notes:
Has the highest chance to poison and highest toxic damage effect of any weapon at the level.
Its basically a stick with 5 needles attached to it. Interesting?
Personal thoughts: The main highpoint of this weapon is it has the highest poison attack strength and damage of affect. Poison damage seems to be pretty lackluster in PvE but a high poison damage may be effective in PvP. More testing is required.

Adamantine Asp
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Very Low
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Fuel slots
Other Notes:
The NM equivalent of the Steel Adder.
Has the highest chance to poison and highest toxic damage effect of any weapon at the level.
Its basically a stick with 5 needles attached to it. Interesting?
Personal thoughts: The main highpoint of this weapon is it has the highest poison attack strength and damage of affect. Poison damage seems to be pretty lackluster in PvE but a high poison damage may be effective in PvP. More testing is required.

Splash

Hive Blade
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: Low
Maximum number of mod slots: 4 Fuel slots
Other Notes:
Its a freaking bee sword. You are slaying demons with bees. The only thing more awesome would be to have a freaking shark sword with freaking lazer beams attached their freaking heads.
Personal thoughts: Despite being a cool concept, the damage on this weapon is quite low. Also being a poison type weapon isnt very helpful in PvE. The 4 fuel slots can help to make this weapon pretty powerful though, albeit having a crazy high will requirement.

Swarm Edge
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: Low
Maximum number of mod slots: 4 Fuel slots
Other Notes:
The NM equivalent of the Hive Blade.
Its a freaking bee sword. You are slaying demons with bees. The only thing more awesome would be to have a freaking shark sword with freaking laser beams attached to their freaking heads. (Austin Powers much?)
Personal thoughts: Despite being a cool concept, the damage on this weapon is quite low. Also being a poison type weapon isnt very helpful in PvE. The 4 fuel slots can help to make this weapon pretty powerful though, albeit having a crazy high will requirement.

Fire Damage

Direct

Molten Edge
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic, 2 Fuel
Other Notes:
A maximum of 4 mod slots makes this sword highly customizable.
Personal thoughts: A great starter sword, probably one of the best. Good damage, interrupt strength, and a decent normal swing rate, with a possible 4 mod slots puts this weapon as probably the best starting sword. The only downside is that it has no inherent ignite strength, but at this level, you hardly need ignite, unless you are Elite.

Cinder Spike
Damage: Very Low (this is for the listed damage, read on to see the real damage)
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Fuel, 1 Battery
Other Notes:
Damage done with this sword is not only the listed damage. Upon a swing with this sword, the normal low damage will first be applied. After hitting the target, a small dart will be sunk into the enemy, exploding 1 second later. The damage of this explosion seems to be around 510 times the listed damage of the weapon.
The explosion is not AoE, it only effects the target you attacked.
Both the initial hit, and the explosion can cause ignite, giving the Cinder Spike double the ignite chance of a normal sword, if you socket it with ignite strength mods.
Multiple darts can be applied at once. If you use SoJ for example, you can see 3 distinct explosions of damage go off one after the other.
With AoE skills such as WW or SS, the explosion damage is only applied to 1 target, or in WWs case, 5 targets because damage is applied 5 times.
Charge does and PoR do not apply the explosion damage.
The explosion damage scales correctly with additional strength, damage from skills, and critical hits.
Personal thoughts: A very strange sword in general. Many people see the low damage number and never use it. I found that the damage for this weapon is actually quite good, and it is actually one of the better weapon types at this level. It is very weak vs mobs of enemies though, as the explosion damage will only be applied once, and it takes an extra second for the damage to go off. Still, dual wielding these and using SoJ to see 6 consecutive explosions just completely rock a monsters face off is pretty cool.

Odachi
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic slots
Other Notes:
Has a great critical damage and boosts critical chance as well
Personal thoughts: A great direct damage type sword. High damage and a possible 2 relic slots to boot. Only downside is that it doesnt add any ignite strength, but that can be achieved with relics.

Dragon Blade
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic slots
Other Notes:
The NM equivalent of the Odachi.
Has a great critical damage and boosts critical chance as well.
Personal thoughts: A great direct damage type sword. High damage and a possible 2 relic slots to boot. Only downside is that it doesnt add any ignite strength, but that can be achieved with relics.

Splash

Firebrand
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: Low
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
First sword that provides ignite attack strength.
Personal thoughts: Pretty meh weapon damage wise. I would still keep one or 2 of these on switch in early levels for boss encounters for the higher chance to ignite.

Flame Column
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Low
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 2 Fuel
Other Notes:
This weapon type has the highest chance to cause ignite.
Personal thoughts: The damage isnt very good, but that is not the focus of this weapon. This weapon is mainly used as a source of ignite, and it does a very good job at that. I would recommend 12 of these on switch modded with ignite strength for boss fights, it can help greatly.

Pyredge
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 2 Fuel
Other Notes:
NM equivalent of the Flame Column.
This weapon type has the highest chance to cause ignite.
Personal thoughts: The damage isnt very good, but that is not the focus of this weapon. This weapon is mainly used as a source of ignite, and it does a very good job at that. I would recommend 12 of these on switch modded with ignite strength for boss fights, it can help greatly

Spectral Damage

Direct

Smiter
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 4 Relic slots
Other Notes:
Only sword that can have 4 relic slots.
Personal thoughts: This sword really isnt that great. It is only available for a short portion of the game, and is almost completely outclassed in every category by the Righteous Star. The only upside to this sword is the 4 relic slots, which means you can slap a lot of luck into it if you are in to that sort of thing.

Righteous Star
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: Very High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Relic, 2 Battery
Other Notes:
This sword has both the highest elemental strength of any sword, and the most amount of mod slots.
Personal thoughts: Overall an excellent sword, probably my favorite sword type for Normal. It has great damage, and excellent phase strength. It also has an inherent 5% chance to crit, and is highly customizable with 5 possible slots. The only downsides to this sword are the high will requirement, and the slow attack rate.

Phase Blade
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Medium
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic, 2 Battery
Other Notes:
One of the few swords that require accuracy
Personal thoughts: Actually a great allaround sword. Less phase strength and 1 less mod slot than the Righteous Star, but higher damage to balance it out. Not bad.

Hypermace
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: High
Inherent elemental strength: Very High
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Battery slots
Other Notes:
This is the NM equivalent of the Righteous Star
This is the only weapon upgrade that has slightly different stats than its predecessor. The Hypermace only has 2 battery slots as opposed the Righteous Stars 3 relic slots and 2 battery slots.
Personal thoughts: Without the extra 3 relic slots, this weapon just simply isnt as godly as its norm predecessor. However, this is still without a question of a doubt the best weapon to cause the phase debuff with. The damage is also alright for this level. I would highly recommend having one of these on your weapon switch to cause phase when you need it.

Splash

Phantasmic Reaper
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Medium
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic, 1 Battery
Other Notes:
First sword that provides phase attack strength
Personal thoughts: A fairly useful starting sword for splash damage. It also can cause phase a good percent of the time. Not a bad weapon at all.

Ward Cleaver
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
One of the 3 sword types that deal 100% pure splash damage.
Personal thoughts: If you are looking for the maximum amount of splash damage possible, this weapon is it. While the single target damage is pretty low, nothing can compare to the amount of splash damage this weapon gives. If you are having problems with packs of enemies, you should seriously consider this weapon.

Rift Ripper
Damage: Low
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
This is the NM equivalent of the Ward Cleaver.
One of the 3 sword types that deals 100% pure splash damage.
Personal thoughts: If you are looking for the maximum amount of splash damage possible, this weapon is it. While the single target damage is pretty low, nothing can compare to the amount of splash damage this weapon gives. If you are having problems with packs of enemies, you should seriously consider this weapon.

Electric Damage
Note that some electric damage sword have the mod Power of Shock Effect XX%. I assume this affects how long the shock condition lasts, but then again, why wouldnt phase and ignite have this mod as well then?
Electric type weapons seem to have low minimum damage and very high maximum damage, giving them high average damage.

Direct

Shock Blade
Damage: Very High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Low
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Battery, 1 Relic
Other Notes:
The average damage on this sword is great.
First sword to provide shock attack strength (not very useful in PvE)
Personal thoughts: A decent sword I guess for low level. Shocking enemies wont help much, but the damage and mod slots are pretty good. The very slow attack rating is pretty cumbersome though.

Lightning Sword
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Battery Slots
Other Notes:
The only sword type that degrades in damage over time because it has a power meter
Personal thoughts: An alright sword type. Dame is good, and 3 battery slots make it fairly customizable. The downside of this sword is you have to let the power meter recharge in big encounters if you want to keep your DPS up. Also, shock just isnt useful in PvE.

Thunder Blade
Damage: High
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Battery Slots
Other Notes:
This is the NM equivalent of the Lighting Sword.
The only sword type that degrades in damage over time because it has a power meter
Personal thoughts: An alright sword type. Dame is good, and 3 battery slots make it fairly customizable. The downside of this sword is you have to let the power meter recharge in big encounters if you want to keep your DPS up. Also, shock just isnt useful in PvE.

Splash

Jacobs Lasher
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Battery slots
Other Notes:
One of the few sword types that require accuracy to equip.
Personal thoughts: For some reason, I really just dont like this sword. Its a decent sword though, alright splash damage, 3 mod slots, but still. Theres nothing too special about it really, unless you are into causing splash damage shock, which I have no idea why you would.

Meteor Blade
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: None
Maximum number of mod slots: 1 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
One of the few swords that require accuracy
Personal thoughts: This sword is basically the same thing as a Jacobs Lasher, with no shock affect but faster attack rate. Again meh.

Devastator
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: Medium
Maximum number of mod slots: 2 Relic, 1 Fuel
Other Notes:
One of the 3 sword types that deal 100% pure splash damage.
Personal thoughts: Probably the only electric type weapon I really like. Other than the Rift Ripper, there is nothing that gives this much splash damage. If you are having trouble with mobs of enemies, this is the weapon to use.

Electrocutioner
Damage: Medium
Interrupt Strength: Medium
Inherent elemental strength: High
Maximum number of mod slots: 3 Battery slots
Other Notes:
This is the NM equivalent of the Jacobs Lasher.
One of the few sword types that require accuracy to equip.
Personal thoughts: For some reason, I really just dont like this sword. Its a decent sword though, alright splash damage, 3 mod slots, but still. Theres nothing too special about it really, unless you are into causing splash damage shock, which I have no idea why you would.