NEO BM Guide for /bnsg/

BM Guide for Fire Build because why spend 8k on blue books? by AlibiMars

Books you should get in 3 categories

bare minimum books:
-at least green Sunstroke (Tab) - This is your main dps enabler for drawstance, for 6 seconds Dragontongue has NO COOLDOWN (Black Dragon Buff)
-at least green Dragontongue (Draw Stance RMB) - hold rmb after Sunstroke or Blade Storm (Flock X skill in drawstance), reduces Sunstroke CD on hit by 1 second
-at least green Pierce (Basic Stance RMB) - hold rmb after block or Blindside, the green book reduces focus cost to 2, your highest damage skill and your Basic Stance mainstay

"we're pumping here" books:
-green Searing slash (4) - it's aoe, and reduces enemy defense, what's not to like?
-green Block Parry (1) - taunt block is omega bait, as the taunt (8 sec duration LUL) will override the block input and you cant block without taunting in a pinch, also holding block for a microsecond too long will cancel the block to taunt, parry block on the other hand only has a 1 (one) second CD, also insanely good for Mushin's tower
-green Koldrak's (Draw Stance LMB) - it's fast and deals nice dmg, use when out of black dragon buff (the thing you get when using Sunstroke or Blade Storm), but you dont have anything to block for pierce spam

"get em and you will have a good time" books:
-green Cyclone (Basic Stance LMB after Block or Shoulder Charge iframe if you have the blue book) - it's rng, you cant buy it, but the focus regen lets you spam more Pierce
-green 5 Point Strike (immunity, Draw Stance 3) - simple failsafe,long i-frame
-green Shoulder Charge (immunity, Basic Stance C) - also rng and has to be dropped or transmuted, unspecs the daze so you can use it to i-frame but most importantly for that sweet 10% heal whenever it's off cd without worrying about fucking up someone's CC window. Be aware that the iframe is fairly short compared to live BNS.
-green Rush (Basic Stance 2)-  increased movespeed is kinda whatever, but 3 instead of 2 focus on hit definitely makes things easier
-green Soaring Falcon (Focus, Basic Stance Z) - recovers 5 Focus, it's big, large and in charge for getting more of those Pierce's out or before swapping to Dragontongues
-green Meteor Strike (Basic Stance X) - it's a 45 sec CD Knockdown, but enables you to knock bosses down by yourself if necessary in combination with Anklebiter (3). Be your own BM!

You barely ever want to Basic Stance LMB. Don't do it...

I haven't mentioned Dragon Crash here, cause it's cringe and spins the boss. Use it if you're not tanking however, otherwise lock it and be an actual asset to the party.

Badges to get:

You want the Sunstroke CD-Reduction on Dragontongue Mystic Badge as that will smooth out your Sunstroke rotation. 0.3 secs is nice (will leave you at roughly 6 sec cd on tab after a full Dragontongue "rotation"), 0.6 secs is enough if you fully unload all Dragontongues in the window and have tab back up almost immediately, 1 sec is for added security if you cant hit them all in the 6 second window

Your Soulbadge can be anything from Dragontongue, Pierce to Sunstroke. Personally I prefer Sunstroke as it gives you a chonky burst hit to steal lasthits on worldbosses. BM lacks any big Damage button like FM's Fiendfire, so a big Sunstroke can compensate in this situation.



General Advice

In Combat you want to block to boost Pierce, then empty your focus bar piercing, press LMB for Cyclone (this booosts pierce again), press 2 for Rush (recovers another 2 or three focus depending on your book and doesn't cancel the pierce boost) so you can pierce again. This is kind of an animation cancel in itself. After your focus bar is (almost!) emptied this way you switch to Draw Stance by pressing tab (Sunstroke) and using a spam of Dragontongues until the buff runs out. Be aware that using Tab while out of focus will not put you into Drawstance, wasting precious time on your Black Dragon Buff.

You alternate these two states as necessary, sometimes there's nothing to block so you use drawstance to still keep up the damage waiting for a blockable attack. Often you will find yourself unable to freely Dragontongue all over your enemy without having to block or them going invulnerable. This means that your Sunstroke is now on a 5 year cooldown.
For Situations like this, we take the L and use Koldrak's. It's slightly less DPS than Dragontongue, but at least you're doing Damage. If you can block something, Pierce is the obvious choice here, though.

Sometimes your party will CC the boss and a rat commanding a cat will pin said boss to the ground. If you dont have your Dragontongue spam ready for this, you're the only one barely doing anything. You can rawdog pierce, as it boosts after the first use, however. Try planning your use of tab for situations like this. A large axewielding maniac or a spinning rat on the other hand will enable a lot of pierces if they have the focus grab. Look out for those and recruit them into your static.

Your opener can be whatever you want it to be, but if you wanna do the big, pumping, swinging DPS, you wanna start with your Soul (preferably Infernal at less than 16m, but still out of aggro range). Then you rush to the opponent and quickly do the Konami Code of Damage:
V-V-C-Tab-4-RMB for 6 seconds-X-RMB for 3 seconds-C-Z-RMB for 3 more seconds-Tab-RMB for 6 seconds
This makes for 18 seconds of almost uninterrupted Dragontongue spam. Almost.
Now this is an idealized opener for an ideal world, but we do not live in an ideal world. If you have to block, you have to block. Piercing is no shame and often preferrable, but make sure to switch back to Draw Stance whenever necessary to make use of your Flock of Blades X. Use Flock whenever it comes off cooldown and synchronize its cooldown with your Soul Core. Also remember that V in Flockstance recovers 2 Focus on hit, enabling the other skills even if your focus bar is empty when you Flock.

I have seen people Cyclone right after a Block. If you have 4 or more focus, then you DO NOT DO THIS. Pierce first, then Cyclone.

Q&E
These two are wonderful iframes. E basically doesnt have a cooldown if you're smart about it. Q puts you in Draw Stance, E puts you in Basic Stance. E will not go on cooldown if used while in drawstance, so you could technically E-Q-E-4-E-Tab-E-SS(also puts you into Drawstance)-2-E for a 20 millenia long iframe. It's not realistic to do, but Jaesung did a similar thing in a tournament to bait an enemy tab, so I'm mentioning it here. Despite me glazing these two, the iframe window is fairly short, so you better practice.

Special Advice

You can animation cancel your Block with LMB to get more deflects out, which is very useful against the enemies in Mushin's tower. Remember that only the first 0.5 seconds of your Block actually parry. After the one second cooldown is over, you can LMB->1 quickly to get a cheeky deflect and stun a raging Junghado.

Your Koldrak's (Draw Stance LMB) range is higher than Dragontongue. Certain Bosses like Infernal Lord or Sajifi will charge up purple AOEs, but standing at the edge while spamming Koldrak's ensures you don't stop doing damage. The optimized way is to Dragontongue while walking out of the AOE in a "sideways" fashion instead of backwards. When you're out of range for Dragontongue, use Koldrak's.

Your Anklebiter basically has no range despite it saying 3 meters. just stand in melee range.

SS is very versatile and has lingering iframes. Your panic Button. Try SSing into Bosses instead of aways from them to not cause range checks, if you're tanking.

Try not to use Q or E in a way that makes the boss spin. Your assassins will cry about it, and the other guys in your party wont be happy either. Either do a quick E-Q or Q-E or make sure the enemy is doing a long ass animation so you can walk back.

Some bosses will do frontal cone or line attacks. Walking to the side while dpsing might be better than stopping to block sometimes. With cones, walking diagonally into the boss has the shortest way to safety. For half-circle AOEs, you can even walk into the boss's model. Dont forget to walk back! We don't spin the boss in this neighbourhood.

Your Flock Skill X in Basic Stance provides a long protection aganst projectiles. Kind of like Assassin or summoner smoke, but it moves with you. Situationally useful. Infernal lord throwing shit at you wont matter. Neither won't Ogong thunderbolting you from his cloud. Second FM boss in Brightstone? Can't touch you for the most part.

If you're having trouble with ignoring the F button prompt popping up whenever an enemy gets stunned or dazed, lock your aerials. Nobody likes flying bosses, except for FMs and FMs deserve less.

Most Bosses will not rangecheck your SS if you immediately Raid (Draw stance 2) back to them. Your iframes will linger upon arrival for a bit.