I've recently fufilled my dream of becoming a Bloodmage and it took a lot less time and effort than I imagined. I've been told by several exiles that the ease with which you qualify for a sub-class depends on how many fighter ranks you have and since I have a good many, it didn't take me very long at all to qualify.
Still, reading the Bloodmage forum on the Sentinel makes me realize just how far the Bloodmage and the Bloodblade have fallen. Originally the Bloodblade (there were no sub-classes when the weapons were introduced) was the most powerful weapon. You needed to fight on red (as you do now), but the amount of Atkus and Darkus which it could provide were much more than any other weapon and much easier to get than training with Atkus and Darkus directly. In addition, the Bloodblade didn't have the balance penalty that training with Atkus and Darkus give so it was efficient training as well.
The Gossamer was just something fighters used to kill trash they had enough natural Darkus to one-shot. For most fighters that was usually GCP, rats, vermine, island panthers and other beasts of a relatively low level.
Now it's quite the opposite. Sure it takes time for Rangers to learn the beasts they want to study and they have to have enough corresponding ranks to have a suitable number of slots to study everything they want at the same time, but it's hardly a horrible sacrifice. After all, if you're hunting in a location anyway and can get last hits you can get an Atkus and Darkus bonus on them and a smaller one for all beasts in the same family with no negative aspects. You don't have to befriend the beast to get this bonus and you don't have to get the morph to get the bonus, but only a relatively small number of last hits and every party I've been with has been very accomodating.
The Bloodmage still has to fight on red to get the Atkus and Darkus bonus and the sub-class abilities (Immolation, Hemorrage, Cripple, Disable, Feign Death) are all dependent on who you fight with. If you fight beasts that everyone can hit than Disable isn't needed and if you have good healers and/or the beasts don't do a lot of damage before they die than Cripple isn't needed. Immolation looks like it would be fun but it requires a lot of work (a few beasts close to the target beast and the ability to find something that you can one-shot before it one-shots you) so if you really need to do damage to many beasts a Champion's Lava Cloak is the best bet. Hemorrage adds additional damage over time on top of the Bloodblade damage which I think is supposed to be more effective than Darkus or Bloodblade ranks because all it does is add damage and none of the Atkus that Bloodblade ranks do. If I got any skill this probably would be it just because it seems to be effective. Feign Death can be useful but it's also situational and you need to be able to spot your imminent demise to use it effectively to preserve your spirit.
That seems to be another sticking point with the Bloodmage class. You have to use spirit for the special abilities and if you don't have spirit you don't get the Darkus bonus from the Bloodblade but when you die you lose your spirit. Do Rangers use their spirit for their abilities (besides Befriend which I doubt any Ranger uses aside from giggles) and do they lose their spirit when they fall? Since we're on the verge of falling whenever we use the Bloodblade being penalized for falling and having to go to such lengths to get our spirit back (collect blood from beasts we dispatch/kill/vanquish or get healed to full and then bleed to red) seems rather unfun.
Right now, it looks like there's no reason to train with any of the Bloodmagic trainers. I'm going to finish out my training with Swengus and probably get a bit more Histia (350 message) and then 50 Crato (for when I learn a Bloodmage skill eventually) and put ranks into the Bloodblade itself. At least if I find I don't need or want the bloodblade ranks I can unlearn them and put them into something else.
I'm a bit disappointed. I figured I'd use my regular fighter ranks for the majority of any hunt but if something needed to die I could use my Bloodblade and quickly kill stuff. Yet the more hunts I'm on the more I think that Rangers can do all of that without needing excessively large amounts of training in the Gossamer and without being in danger of falling since they don't need to be at red health.
And there's so many things that can easily kill a person on red even if they have perfect reflexes and an eye for danger. Multiple feraling beasts is the biggest danger since you can't tell who they'll attack and so your only recourse is to stay away from them which is difficult but also hard to do if you want to get up close and hit them. Then there are beasts who target exiles on low health, webs, fire, lightning, and more that you can't dodge no matter what.
In other words it seems like the Rangers got all of the offensive power without any of the weaknesses that Bloodmages have and Rangers can morph into beasts for even more bonuses while we have debuffs of dubious use and short duration, an aoe that is extremely difficult to use, and a dot which does good damage but is only effective on beasts that don't die in a few seconds. Besides, if you really need something to die fast you'd probably just want Bloodblade ranks for the most damage in one swing.
So I guess my training is going to be:
Swengus: 1000 message
Histia: 350
Crato: 50 (for future use)
Bloodblade: 200 message
Then I'll decide whether to get further Bloodmage training depending on whether I can find a regular hunting party and can tailor my training to the areas I frequent and what the party needs.
It's a little depressing to be honest. I thought I'd be more excited about being a Bloodmage and more eager to train in the new abilities rather than training more with regular fighter trainers.