Blade or Thief/Mage?

[Pyrenk]

Oh, Melf's Minute Meteors. What is the "cheese" tactic?

[Desuma Malevois]

Originally posted by Sir Exxon: First of all, welcome to Ironworks! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] Now, of those two, I would say the Thief/Mage is more suited for solo, having both max Thief and Mage skills. With the Blade, however, you have fairly small fighting skills, spellcasting, and reduced rogue-skills. The little fighting-advance the Blade has, the Thief/Mage quickly matches with a backstab. Thieves have stronger rogue-abilities. Mages have stronger spellcasting. The only two reasons you would want to pick the Blade over a Thief/Mage, is Offensive & Defensive Spin and Battle Song. These are both abilities that aren't necessary, though, so the Thief/Mage won't miss out on alot.

Keep in mind, however, that a blade will level up much faster than a mage, thus certain spells that they DO use become very powerful very quickly. Skull Trap and Flame Arrow are just two that spring readily to mind. In addition, the blade can use almost any weapon, very useful if you want to throw Azuredge at a vampire or use the Flail of Ages or Crom Faeyr.

[Desuma Malevois]

Originally posted by Pyrenk: Oh, Melf's Minute Meteors. What is the "cheese" tactic?

Having a weapon in your off hand when the spell is cast. ou will actually be able to "throw" the weapon at your opponent as well (imagine getting beaned by a thrown Celestial Fury or Crom Faeyr ).

[LennonCook]

MMM Exploit:
Equip a powerful offhand weapon.
Cast Melf's Minute Meteors.
Cast Offensive Spin.
Let the good times err... fly.

[daan]

I'll just summorize an earlier ToB-topic about the blade:
(The Topic basically covers a fwe of the blade's advantages)

Sir Exxon:

They become really powerful with the HLA's. Especially with all the traps and the Use Any Item-ability, which then again leads to Scribe Scrolls...

A good Armour for the Bard would be the Aslyferund +5. Be on the look for the Bladesinger Chain +4.

Sever:

Blades also have a very useful ability at low level. Offensive spin can turn a dual wielding blade into a death dealing machine. Not as good as GWW, but you can use it much, much earlier. Take advantage of the high attack rate by equipping weapons that kill with one hit. Sooner or later you've got to get a hit in.

Daan:

And with defensive spin ( + use any item later ), the Blade is one of the very few Classes that can obtain a low enough AC to be almost impossible to hit in even ToB.

Alson:

Throw Mirror Image and Stoneskin into the equation, and the Blade is a major canidate for the Merkava-Sign-Four Class Tank.

~~ Tip of the day - Blades can move while in Defensive Spin if they are under a state of Free Action ~~

Lucifer Lord of Demons:

Which is why you blade should ALWAYS have a ring of 'free action' on.

~~2nd tip of the day: A blade can still cast spells in defensive spin (think about it)~~

~~additional tip: Casting melf's minute meteors with a weapon in your off-hand is VERY effective. WHY?

Melf's meteors count as +5 weapons so you can hit ANYTHING and if you have something like, say, celestial fury you'll have 1 attack every round that has a chance at paralysing the enemy - no matter the distance!! Combine this with defensive spin, boots of speed and ring of free action and you'll beat almost every baddy!!!

[Pyrenk]

Oh..I found that out the hard way. I thought it was some uber meteor trick [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by daan: ~~ Tip of the day - Blades can move while in Defensive Spin if....

Although I can imagine times when I would want my Blade to NOT be able to move. Once my current party gets to our next Dragon, I'll experiment to see if Defensive Spin renders one immune to the Knockback effects of Wing Buffet.