A Few Important Things about BM in Blade & Soul PvP

There seems to be an air of misunderstanding here in this subreddit, where newcomers are reading posts and thinking BM is pretty strong and balanced in PvP at level 45.

The truth? Sadly they are not.

There are edge cases, people like s_pvp who are BM mains streaming. Keep in mind he played for two years in CN/TW and was a diamond BM main there, and in the vod someone linked, he lost a round to a gold summoner in NA and almost lost the match by like 1/10th his hp.

If he fought a CN/TW diamond summoner main here in NA on our servers with this level 45 patch? No offense, but I believe he would get curbstomped.

Let's get a few thing straight, so that any newcomers combing this subreddit for info on BM PvP balance in this patch, aren't mislead.

All these points are made assuming players are equally skilled.

1. BM's are at the bottom of the totem pole. The only class they can reliably beat are FM. But FM are better at fighting all the other classes.

2. BM's do not have enough skill points to fill out their skills right now. We have to choose between CC, chi management, damage, and escapes/defense. From the looks of junho and s_pvp and their recommendations for level 45, it seems the focus should be on chi management and ground combo damage.

3. If you and an equally skilled friend spar, and you're playing BM, and he's not playing BM or FM, you will lose more often than not.

And from my experience, rating how hard it is to beat other classes as a BM in PvP (this turned into a defacto level 45 tier list).

1) Summoner. This shit is the most frustrating uphill battle you will ever face. He can make a million mistakes and still win because you won't be able to output the damage needed to kill him, unless you sacrifice your second escape. Keep in mind he can nearly 100-0 you if his cat grapples you.

2) Assassin. The second most frustrating fight. Basic tip, don't block while he's in stealth, he can stun you through block. At level 45, his combos do more damage than you, he has more escapes, and he has more cc's. He will stomp you if he even remotely knows what he's doing.

3) Blade Dancer. This is the biggest tease fight. It seems you have a chance, like you're pretty evenly matched at level 45. But trust me when I say, you're not. They are very similar, except they get their damage resist skill, while you do not until level 50. They are very similar in the cc and escapes category, but you'll notice very quickly, they straight up do more damage with every air combo, and their ground combo can easily 100-0 you at level 45.

4) Destroyer/KFM. I'm putting both of these classes on the same tier because there is hope when fighting these classes. There's a ton of bad spin2win destroyers and a bunch of counter spamming grapple whore KFM's that a good BM can beat. But the common issue is, both Destroyers and KFMs are just straight up tankier than BM's at 45 and do more damage with their combos. So if you fight an equally skilled player, you will lose. (3rf scares the shit out of me. And being 100-0'd by ani cancel is just disheartening)

5) Blade Master. The only true skill match up for our sad BM selves, is fighting another BM. May the best blade master win :)

6) Force Master. I'm not very good at this game, yet. But I have never lost to a force master in arena. A BM kit straight up counters FM until the FM gets access to some much needed level 50 skills. (But FM does way better against the other classes in this level 45 patch)

Tl;dr I wrote a whole bunch of biased shit from the PoV of a gold BM who just started this game. So take it for what it's worth. I just don't want newcomers checking the game out to fall into the same trap I did. BM's are not balanced at level 45, at all. It's very weak compared to other classes.

If you're stubborn like me, and still want to roll a BM, adjust your BNS goals. My personal goal is to hopefully hit 1800 before the Feb. 10th patch. And then hopefully platinum with the extra skill points before the level 50 patch.

But my post will probably be downvoted to oblivion because I'm just "bad at this game" and need to "l2pvp" like all these other pro summoners and assassins :) :)