Risky and Blade Piercing Changes

[Gildarts]

Recently Risky Blade and Blade Piercing received some nerfs/changes that I'd like to reiterate.

They are as followed:

Weapon Master (Sword) Balance Changes
Risky Blade Dance no longer interrupt casts.
Risky Blade Dance Technique now has a 0.5s end cast time.
Crescent Moon Beheading Technique cast time reduced from 2s to 1s.
Crescent Moon Beheading Technique damage reduced from 41/41/42 to 29/29/30.
Blade Piercing Technique damage reduced from 32/32/33 to 29/29/30.
Risky Blade Dance Technique damage increased from 28/28/29 to 32/32/33.
Wild Slashes Range increased from 3 tiles to 4 tiles.
Shockwave Slash Technique Speed Increased 20% (100 to 80).
Shockwave Slash Technique Cooldown reduced from 16/16/16 to 15/15/15.

I showed you all this to show what was changed in the red and what my suggestions will be for them.

Risky Blade
I'm all for the changes, but I feel that the changes were over tuned and I shall state why.

• Risky is fine with having a self stun of 0.5 at the end or no longer having the ability to interrupt cast but having both does the skill no justice.
• You are self stunned after using the skill which allows for an opponent to follow up with any skill that doesn't have a cast time
• Also you can no longer interrupt cast with this skill as it was a necessity for pure strength weapon masters to cancel things.
  However, it is fine that it was removed as some swords cause knockback and there is a secondary skill to interrupt cast even though it is harder to cancel/use than other cancels in game

Suggest: I suggest that either the self stun is reduced to 0.1-0.3 seconds/removed entirely or change it to a silence so that the user can still move around but cant cast jutsus for a broken burst.


Blade Piercing

• Currently Blade Piercing is a decent skill, but when you think about the level it is and the skill it doesn't allow you to use if used it makes you think of your actions. Shadow Shuriken which is a cancel and blade piercing are both the same level meaning you have a choice to use 1 or the other while they share a cooldown. This is fine, but when playing pure strength weapon master you are hindered by this.
•  
• Blade piercing had it's damage reduced but not by much all while having a 2 second self stun after use. (Yes it is 2 seconds I timed it) 
• Majority of strength weapon master jutsus have a cast time and now 2 of the jutsus have a self stun this being 1 of them and the other Risky Blade.

Suggest: I suggest that the self stun cased by blade piercing is reduced/removed at each level until at max level where it is at it's lowest or completely removed. My example is as followed:

• 1 second self stun> 0.5 second self stun> No self Stun
• 1 second self stun>0.5 second self stun> 0.5 second self stun
• 1 second self stun> 1 second self stun> 05. second self stun

 

[Elegy]

I don't think risky should be buffed. 

The skill gives too easy outplay potential if it cancels, and if it doesn't self stun, it is very hard to punish in a lot of scenarios (e.g. sub -> risky). On top of this, if it doesn't have a self-stun, it allows for too easy of a sub punish through risky -> auto. 

As for blade piercing,

I don't think removing the self stun is a wise idea as the base damage is very high on this move (incredibly high for a str scaling move, especially with the base damage power creep on new swords). The move is a high risk high reward and to justify removal of a self stun, you would have to reduce the base damage significantly (I'm talking at least 50% damage reduction). 

[Indra]

I think that the overal idea of nerfeing Weapon Master was more than needed.

Weapon masters are not like the other masteries. Swords are the core of its balancing. Its what make the mastery unique. Having risky strike canceling casts was just an overkill if we consider the fact that the main goal of a WM is to land melee attacks. You cannot have good melee and good jutsus. Thats just having the best of both world and its unbalanced.

If we think about it, the jutsu is called Risky blade dance. The name states a risk. the risk is the self stun. It should have been like this from the begining.

@JunPachi You also mentionned people going for shadow shuriken because its far more worth than blade piercing. In my opinion masteries sub paths should be locked so you cant use both kits. To me it sounds so normal that its abnormal its not already the case. (same goes for medics > tai >fan > bubble)

[Rouki]

Pure strength weapon masters are not hindered by blade piercing/ss because they dont have 35int.

Blade Piercing selfstun isnt 2sec.