okay. First time going as a knight, Various questions, all answers appreciated

1. Is transing athletics really necessary? i was hoping to only go up to strength for Flex to save lessons. is that recommended?

2. Is the master armor in forging exceptional? like, totally worth it? For saving lessons, instead of transing it and keeping it, i was hoping to trans it, get master armour, forget it for 20% loss, and then transing my knighthood. better than transing both, since i wont be able to due to not having enough lessons. I wont mind the 400 lessons lost, at least its not 1715 in a skill i wont much use. anyway, is this recommended?

I`ve searched the forums for information on PureBlade and BladeMaster, but wasnt satisfied. here are a few more questions:

PureBlade-

1. What does one concentrate on when pvping- going for wounds, damage kill through bleeding, instant kills? Is this better than Blademaster in pvping? if not, what are the advantages BM has over Pureblade in pvping?

2. What are the best weapon stats for pvping, in a Katana? that is, what stats should i be looking for in order to know if its a good weapon or not?

Blademaster

3. - What does one concentrate on when pvping- going for wounds, damage kill through bleeding, instant kills? Is this better than Pureblade in pvping?

4. What are the weapon stats for pvping i should be looking for? should i be looking for rapiers or another weapon for pvping? what about the stats and weapons for hunting?


General

5. Which class would be better if one has intentions of placing runes their weapons,(for pvp)?

6. Which runes would be better for a Pureblade and for a Blademaster?

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I realize these are a lot of questions, and too much for one single person to answer but if you could quote a single question and answer it, I and every other aspiring knight would very much appreciate it. I`m in the Templars guild, a very quiet one, so theres no one i can ask these questions to. Thanks again

Blademaster has pinleg, collapsenerve is also nice. Pb has tendon, collapsenerve, and amputate which all hinder your ability to stand which is great. The only thing about bm is being able to swing two weapons instead of just one. An example of this is something I used to use to bypass parry when going for a behead, lunge head with mantakaya and hack down on the second hit with senso. I'd say pb is more powerful and bm is more laming people to death, what with the ability to sleeplock people of they don't have metawake up. I'm not real sure what people use for weapons, my rapiers were like.. X/210/260 or some such. Flex, surge, regeneration, and transmute are all the useful skills out of athletics. You can't wear masterarmour without having forging and I think masterarmour and weapon/armor runes are a great reason to keep forging. As far as artifact runes go, you might buy increased wounding first and then stat runes for more speed/wounds. Elementals aren't required but are nice for the extra damage to offset wound curing with the possibility of them sipping health. Tactics wise, as a bm if I wasn't trying to lame people to death with pinleg I would go for a collapsenerve/slitlock and behead. Pb you will basically just stack regen prone affs until you lock and go for behead. Damage killing isn't exactly viable 1v1 unless you are fighting scrubs. ..did I touch on everything?

People usually answer "yes" to any question about whether transing anything is necessary, but "necessary" only goes as far as your plans. To be a top tier competitor with anyone else -- yes, transing virtually everything is necessary for that. Being useful in combat? No, you don't need to be trans Athletics for that, and there are probably other things that are more important, but no one here is likely to be able to give you a really complete answer to that without knowing about your guild, how many lessons you're likely to have available to you, and what your priorities are. And that kind of personal one-on-one advice colored by a precise knowledge of your personal situation is precisely what mentors are for.

That's not to say people won't try. But their tries will usually be predicated on the assumption that you'll dig into that pocket and come up with enough lessons to get everything anyone can think of that's "necessary" even if that's only necessary for a different goal than the one you're really working towards (at least today).

You need Knighthood to wear master armour, not Forging.

If credits are hard to acquire, it's easier to make one weapon permanent with a single rune than having to buy two runes for two weapons, so there's that to consider.

I stand corrected!

I would say that it makes more sense to not buy the cheap weapon runes, especially just one, and doubly especially for pureblade or axelord. After tempering, they make your weapon worse, not better.

With the change to forging, I would imagine more often than not these days people don't have above runeable stats. Or I didn't anyway, and in that case it would be an improvement?

It's the other way around. Because of the change to forging, everyone has above 463 on their weapons. They have 480.

I didnt understand. So what runes do you recommend on what weapons?

You can get weapon stats up to 480 total with tempering, but to rune the weapon, you have to temper those stats down to 463, so buying a +5 stat rune doesn't give you much of a boost. I'd personally recommend elemental runes and bleeding runes for a BM/PB.

Is it recommended i get masterarmour instead of going for Surge in Athletics? i`d leave athletics at Flex(Strength)

No. Masterarmour is nice, sure, but it's just +10/+10 stats. Surge is far far more helpful on the whole (unless you are a very low level with abysmal intelligence).

Thanks Xenthos, that answer helped out.

What are the recommended stats i look for in Katanas or Rapiers? Should i be looking for speed or precision? or damage?

Max speed, then damage for hunting.

For unruned, I heard 250-260 speed and max precision with that speed and minimum damage.

Get two weapons one with max speed/high damage for hunting and one with max speed/high precision for pvp. Max speed is a good thing to have.

Well how do i know if a stat is at max? (hehe, i know nothing about Melee, thanks for the patience)

Max speed is 280. For any other stats, your local forger will inform you when you cannot put any more to the stats.

280 is maximum speed.
235 is maximum precision.
180 is maximum damage.

That's for 1h weapons; 2h weapon stats are calculated by multiplying damage by 2 and precision by 2.2.

SO as a pure blade one should focus on speed and high precision(or is that for rapier)? For runes (on pureblade), bleeding and elemental? for weapon (on pure blade)- Katana?

I dont remember seeing anything else besides katana actually. I`m guessing Katana is the popular one because everyone other dual wield sucks?

detailed answer, appreciated.