[Eddie]

Even if it is still very early into the game and balance isn't a priority, Gentle Blade is an outlier.

Intermediate
Gentle Blade: Combat Style. All physical damage is converted to Holy. +15% AP.

It has more +AP% than Celestial Ascension, it has the same +AP% as Death Aura and all while having the effects of Triton's Intent (but better) AND being an Intermeditate skill.

[Method T]

It should be noted that while Gentle Blade is an intermediate Blade style and is extremely strong, its counterpart (Way of the Wild Boar) is far more dangerous, and is similarly an intermediate skill.

To compare. 200 RPL with Gentle Blade: 30 Pow, all damage converted to Holy.

200 RPL with Way of the Wild Boar: 10 Pow, 10 Agi, all physical attacks have 15% chance of inflicting 3s bleed, and the skill comes attached with previously Nigh-unobtainable Death's Door, except it also turns all skills GCDE and gives you extra speed.

If anything, the two should probably just be noted as exalted, like Ultrasmash, or at least a bit difficult to get without decent progress/reason.

[Chance]

At 200 Power, +15% AP is 30 Power. The damage conversion into holy is mostly for aesthetic since the amount of holy power you can gain is very low (just the weapon enchant?). It's good, but not really ground breaking when you consider it has no special effect like other styles, just a pure stat modifier.

There's more intermediate-tier combat styles planned as well, that're sort of like hiddens but less informal through the mentor system. Right now it's just Wild Boar, Gentle Blade, and Assassin's Fist, all of which are intentional upgrades on the basics.

[Nailman]

Actually what Tay said might be rather true tbqh, while Gentle Blade itself is somewhat strong, the fact it only gives +15% AP but no effect is quite a fair point to make. No effects and a bit of extra stats? I think it lacks in personality, but it fits balance well enough.

Wild Boar though? It does the exact opposite. (not all that) Little stats, and WAY too many effects
10 pow, 10 agi, all physical attacks have 15% chance of inflicting 3s of bleed, comes with a BUFFED to hell death's door
what does this stance not do? i think the only thing it lacks is making you sandwiches while you just press all buttons on your keyboard enjoying the fact you miss the only two downsides of playing an armed melee: risk vs reward barely matters (lol you're only going to live for 8 seconds anyway so who cares about taking in extra damage) and everything GCDE just puts melee on its peak performance of "i can just look at you and deal your entire life in damage"

imo: no bladestyle should be so strong that the only reason anyone would not want it is the corny name

[Jesse]

I think a horrible name is a bigger nerf than any stat change could be. I wouldn’t use something called, say, Horsecock Stance, even if it was the single best thing in the game, and I don’t think you would either.