Conqueror’s Blade is a PVP-focused MMORPG where you control a Hero with a small army and work together with your team to defeat the opposing team. More information can be found on their website here and in our review here. This is a guide for beginners hoping to learn how to play Nodachi.

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Pros and Cons of Nodachi

Nodachi is essentially referred to as the “Meat Grinder” class where it specializes in taking down a massive number of troops. Due to its innate lifesteal ability, it grants you the opportunity to stick to a fight and continuously mow down enemy troops. Appropriate dodging and playing smart will keep you in a position to deal damage far longer than any other class – making you the perfect class for whittling down enemy forces.

The downside to Nodachi is in its 1v1 potential. Its reliance on enemy units for sustain and the lack of decent CC make it much weaker when fighting only against enemy heroes. It forces you to either run from the enemy, or engage in a battle of attrition. Experienced Nodachi players will be able to effectively take down opponents by outsustaining them, but it requires a more in-depth knowledge of when and how to avoid enemy CC.

Pros	Cons
Great unit-killing potential Great sustain Ultimate destroys shieldwalls Can solo ranged units	Little CC other than Bloodthirsty Squishy if caught in CC Vulnerable to bleed stacks Need to learn timing to be efficient

Nodachi Stat Build

I strongly recommend going a full Agility build. The reason being that if you play smart and learn when to attack/dodge then you should have minimal reasons for dying. You are not the facetaking monster LS/SS are, and you also do not have the benefit of having heavy armour. Going full Agility gives you the chance to maximize your damage against late game heavy armour troops and improving the amount of health you gain back through lifesteal.

HOWEVER if you are a beginner and have not yet had a lot of practice with dodging and reading your opponent’s attack patterns, consider going full armour or 50/50 for the time being. This isn’t something that you can suddenly learn in a day or two, but once you a practiced the most efficient build would definitely be full agility.

Nodachi Skill Selection

These are the skills I would recommend based off of my own idea of optimal playstyle for the Nodachi:

Tiger’s Claw:

Two large slashes in front of you – absolutely decimates low-armour units. This is the bread and butter of the unit decimation class. Each slash deals 129% base slashing damage + 1885 slash damage and using the skill heals you for 1200 health at max level.

Bloodthirsty:

Quick stab in front of you that knocks down the enemy troops and heroes. Also another critical skill in this build since this is essentially your only form of CC. Deals 86% piercing damage + 1258 piercing damage. Fully levelled will also knock down enemies, remove “Dazed” effect, and landing a hit gives you two points of Bloodlust (3% life drain effect).

Monstrous Blade:

Gives you increased lifesteal from all of your attacks. At max level, it transfers 40% damage taken by the enemy into your health and lasts for 14 seconds. Also consumes Bloodbath effect to restore 1500 health per second for 4 seconds. Some people like to substitute this skill out for one of the other damaging skills. Really up to personal preference, but I like the extra sustain this provides for me to continue to deal basic attack damage. The basic attack has a decent damage and hella wide range to deal damage to begin with, so to me the extra lifesteal to keep me in the battle is much more worth it.

Dragon’s Leap:

This is the best ultimate skill once you take into account the amount of damage you are already doing with other abilities/basic attacks. The main reason to choose this skill is that it absolutely wrecks shield walls and masses of units. If you time it correctly, this skill will open up the enemy defences at the exact moment your units charge in. Charges for 2 seconds then leaps forward to deal 370% of base slashing damage + 4869 slashing damage. Throws enemy troops and heroes and reduces damage taken while charging by 30%.

The other ultimate does deal more damage, but once you get to a certain level of opponents ain’t nobody gonna wait for you to kick their ass like that – you would immediately get CC’ed out of your mind.

Bloodlust/Bloodbath Mechanism:

This is the new unique mechanism that came in the recent patch. Bloodthirsty, Samurai’s March and Fearless & Steadfast all generate points of Bloodlust. Each point of Bloodlust adds a 3% Life Drain effect which is essentially your lifesteal. Once you get 5 points, Bloodlust is converted into Bloodbath where you get a 25% Life Drain and 15% improvement to piercing armour penetration. With all that is going on in the battle, I personally only really keep track of it just to know when to time my Monstrous Blade since the extra 1500hp/second for 4 seconds can really be helpful. The piercing armour penetration is nice, but really isn’t all that relevant since very few of your abilities here actually benefit from it.

Runnerup: Blood Oath

Some people like to run Blood Oath instead of Monstrous Blade now since it also refreshes the Bloodbath effect. Using this skill instead will allow you to be hyper-aggressive due to refreshing cooldowns. Instead of just doing your damage combo with CC and backing out, you can use Blood Oath to continue the CC on the enemy and continuing with another damage combo.

Biggest reason I go with Monstrous Blade instead is in larger battles with multiple heroes it is harder to go into multiple combos anyways. I end up rolling out of the way even partway through my initial combo since Bloodthirsty doesn’t always knock down everyone. You definitely do NOT want to get caught and using Blood Oath might trick you into sticking in the fight longer than you should.

Nodachi Optimal Playstyle

One way to think of the overall playstyle is a never-ending stream of hit and runs. Imagine yourself as a constant threat of unit annihilation where you can repeatedly take out entire shield walls, but only if you can avoid CC. Typically the damage done to you won’t make a huge difference due to the insane lifesteal with this build, but you are in danger the moment you lose lifesteal due to CC. This class and playstyle will allow you to continuously attack without having to go back and heal as long as you know how to avoid getting locked down.

Main Combo

Assuming that you are against 1-2 other heroes and their units, the main combo is going to be Bloodthirsty into Tiger’s Claw into 2-3 basic attacks and then rolling out. The Bloodthirsty should always be aimed towards the enemy heroes so that they dont have a chance to interrupt the rest of your skill rotation while you decimate their troops. There is usually enough time to land a couple of basic attacks at the end of it, but Tiger’s claw is the main damage dealer.

If you happen to miss the Bloodthirsty CC, you have to read the situation and decide your next move based on the opponent’s CC ability:

No Cooldown on CC ability or CC heavy class: Usually once you attempt and miss your Bloodthirsty, the skill would have brought you really close to the enemy and 9 times out of 10 they would try to hit you with an ability. In this situation, immediately roll out of the way then try to land a Tiger’s Claw before backing off completely. Worst scenario that can happen here is they immediately CC you and you get killed by their units while locked down.

As for determining cooldown ability on CC, it is purely up to experience and practice. Pretty much any class in this game can have a decent knockdown/interrupt, and so you have to just keep a general timeframe in mind based on when they most recently used their CC abilities. For classes like Poleaxe, I just constantly assume that they have SOME form of CC ability up due to how many skills they have.

CC Ability on Cooldown or little CC available: If they do not have the CC to either knock you down or interrupt you, continue with the usual damaging combo. The reason behind this is that your damage on their units will likely heal you enough to keep you alive and it ends up being free unit kills before you roll out of the way.

Large Group Battle

This situation usually comes up when the enemy is grouped and getting ready for a strong push (either attacking or defending). What typically happens is the enemy has a line of shields with pikes supporting it and ranged units slightly further back. Keep in mind that Conqueror’s Blade is a team game with a heavy focus on strategy. You not only have to keep in mind your opponent’s class, but also their units as well.

The combo generally is to activate Monstrous Blade, hit the shieldwall with Dragon’s Leap, hit Tiger’s Claw into the exposed units, land Bloodthirsty on the closest heroes and IMMEDIATELY get out.

Never ever try to attempt this combo without units covering you or the enemy is already engaged in fighting. Any decent player will immediately recognize the Dragon’s Leap and back away or CC you to death. Hiding behind your shield wall makes it hard for them to see what you are doing and if they are already fighting then chances are they might not be paying attention to you or have already used their abilities.

The reason for activating Monstrous Blade even before attacking is the ranged units (especially Namkhan Archers) can still kill you in the short time frame you are exposed. With the extra lifesteal, the skill damage is usually enough to keep you at around 60-70% health after the full combo.

You want to immediately Tiger’s Claw since the units are either on the ground from Dragon’s Leap, or there is a big gaping hole in the shieldwall that leaves the units beside it exposed. A properly timed and distanced Dragon’s Leap will bring you just behind these other units and hitting a Tiger’s Claw will help clear the remaining part of the wall.

Bloodthirsty here isn’t exactly necessary depending on situation, but I usually like to land an extra one on the closest enemy with potential for CC just to give myself some breathing room. Without it, the Tiger’s Claw takes up enough time for them to get up and CC me before I can roll out.

One other note with this combo is that it is particularly devastating when you charge in sword and shield units at the same time. Many heroes will be on the ground and the shield wall is exposed – leading to extremely high damage on everyone and everything if your units get in. If they do, then you can actually stick with combo and land a few basic attacks before getting out.

Likewise, if your teammates actually decide to back you up and rush at the same time, you can actually stay in the fight and go for kills. In this case, definitely try to land your Bloodthirsty on the closest enemy with the HIGHEST health. The reason being that typically lower health heroes are already dead with your teammates around, and forcing higher health enemies to stay increases your chances of racking up more kills + forcing enemy units to retreat.

Problems with this Playstyle and How to Overcome Them

Weak 1v1 PVP

This playstyle is geared towards squad based combat, and is much weaker when it is 1v1 with the enemy hero. Conqueror’s Blade battles can also be won by solely killing the enemy heroes and forcing their units to retreat. This is why you should almost always have your units nearby since your 1v1 potential is fairly low if your opponent is any good.

The lifestyle from abilities and basic attacks are not nearly enough when all you have to lifesteal off of is the enemy hero. This is especially important when you take into account that a hero has a ton more armour and the lifesteal is based off of damage the enemy takes. More armour = less damage = less healing. This combined with the fact that you really only have one CC ability that can be hard to land means you are very unlikely to be able to burst them down before they CC you to death. However, if you ever manage to get a Dragon’s Leap off (once in a blue moon though), you can go into Tiger’s Claw then Bloodthirsty then a few basic attacks.

If you do find yourself in a 1v1 situation and you absolutely cannot get out, your fighting style will be based off of attrition. No other class AFAIK will have the same level of healing as you, even if it is much weaker against heroes. Best way to handle the situation is to try to land Bloodthirsty, but if you miss then roll out until it resets. Without landing some form of CC, the enemy will just CC you back and then you’ll just end up dying.

Bleed Damage

One other issue with this playstyle is against Namkhan Archers and other units that stack bleed damage. If they are focus firing on you and you try to take them out alone, you are very likely to lose a lot of health from the bleed stacks. A fully maxed out unit can stack a crazy amount of bleed onto you and you won’t be able to lifesteal once the unit is all dead. No lifesteal + crazy bleed damage + mediocre health means you’ll either be dead or in a position for the enemy hero to clean you up. However, if they are already firing on another unit then feel free to eliminate them.

Conclusion

The Nodachi can be an extremely satisfying class to play if you enjoy absolutely decimating enemy units. It specializes in squad based combat and utilizes lifesteal to continuously stay on the attack. Utilizing this build and playstyle will optimize its ability to consistently take down enemy units, while avoiding capture. I hope that this Nodachi guide has been of some help for new and old Nodachi players. Please feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns about the best way to play Nodachi!

For new Conqueror’s Blade players check out our Top 12 Tips for Beginners here.

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