Fencer Archive

I am one of the holo-caused Fencers. I specifically avoided this and the other melee classes simply because they didn't seem very "Star Warsy" to me. Having said that, I enjoy the combat in this game much more as a melee fighter. And I can wield a gaffi stick, which has Star Wars written all over it!

Point being, I'm enjoying Fencer far more than I was any of the other ranged combat classes. So if your'e a new Fencer, or just checking out the boards....try it.

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Rro wrote:

...the TKA stuff is looking a lot more appealing. I'm glad you said that.

Yes I said shoosting.

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yeah, i keep hearing everyone complain how much defense TKAs get. so instead, i'll just take their defenses. plus, the meditation might allow me to not need to go beyond novice medic. i haven't done any research on this, so my idea might be fairly unplausible.

and going back to novice unarmed, i remember how slow it was when i was starting fencer... it's an interesting reminder how much work we all have really put in. it's my firm belief that ranged users have an easier time starting out. they just have a shallower curve. ours is a j-curve.

i also want to get the swordsman's area posture down to couple with our area dizzy. anyone know if swordsman get an area knockdown? or maybe pikeman do...

either way, i'm with you, Rro, i just want to be as good as i can. i'll never be as good as most, but i'll at least be able to handle myself without embarrassment.

(last night, myself, a bounty hunter, a novice pistoleer, and a commando fought sludge panthers. i had three on me and survived while the bounty hunter and commando both died. i even had enough life left to save the pistoleer, and was ready for more action before the other two could clone and return. just one more testimonial that fencers aren't as broken as we think.)

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Ralyykk wrote:

I am one of the holo-caused Fencers. I specifically avoided this and the other melee classes simply because they didn't seem very "Star Warsy" to me. Having said that, I enjoy the combat in this game much more as a melee fighter. And I can wield a gaffi stick, which has Star Wars written all over it!

Point being, I'm enjoying Fencer far more than I was any of the other ranged combat classes. So if your'e a new Fencer, or just checking out the boards....try it.

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i'll be honest: i dislike holofencing; except when people fall in love with it. i'm glad you've found how fun this is. and i hope you see just how "Star Warsy" melee is. the Sith wars were all melee. Master Arca Jeth was one of the few actual battle-oriented Jedi, if i remember correctly, and really schooled a lot of people with a lightsaber, Sith and Jedi alike.

Ralyyk is right. if you're just starting, or browsing about, Fencer is a great class with class.

don't underestimated how useful having soem ranged skills can be.. Espcially ranged knockdown, tkas dont even get close to enough to hit me most of the time

Hey Altair makes a good point, I do not think Fencer is broken. Yes there are things that could be done to make us more powerful, but who's asking for it? My opinion is that the people that are crying about fencer are mostly the holocron players that want to get through it faster or have not taken the time to learn what the moves do to benefit in fighting. Some of the best fencing moves don't inflict damage so it seems that players that usually fight with blasters and heavy weapons move into the field and fail to use the knock down methods in favor of wasting a lot of HAM to inflict 1400 dammage on every blow.

So it comes down to learning not only a fighting technique and what armor to equip for each situation, but also learning all the moves you get to use. Blaster users just keep hitting bodyshot2,bodyshot2 overa n over and move around and kill stuff. May as well just make the game played with an atari 2600 joystick and give them a single fire button. (sorry for blasting anyone that uses all the ranged weapon moves, i was almost a master pistoleer and that's how I felt about fighting which is why i switched to fencer) If you do some research on these boards, pretty much any complaint you have about the profession can be answered just by using a different weapon, adding/removing armor or changing the combat commands you use for particular enemies.

So to say that fencer is flawed because a commando slayed you with a flame thrower in 2 shots and you had no defence is silly. I don't think anyone should be able to withstand that kind of an attack. To say that fencer is flawed because your enemies are running away from you is also silly. Let them run, there's strategies around that as well, of course you should have knocked them down to begin with, but assuming it failed, you need to develop a backup plan. To say that fencer's defence isn't that good, also wrong, i've gone against crazy things in groups and have survived longer than comandos, bounty hunters and other melee players.

Fighting in this game is fairly complex, it is not cut and dry and if you cannot get a handle on fighting as a fencer, accept that you are not good at it and move on to another comabt type. Don't say that the profession is totally broken becuse you're not good at it. If the game developers want to add flashy things to the profession (flaming rantok swords) to get people to go into it, that's their own gig. Personally, I don't think anything should change except allowing weaponsmiths the ability to craft rantok swords. It would also be nice that by reaching master fencer you could use some odd weapon that you do not qualify for until Master. Maybe it could resemble an actual fencingfoil, or maybe that is the point at which you can fight with dual swords.

So my message to the developers is to change nothing. I have enjoyed my time so far as a fencer and continue to enjoy it. Even though I am at 1/2/11 and a casual player, i look forward to the next couple months of play before i hit master.

that's a good point. but my guildmates would wonder if i suddenly changed my stance on those "cowardly energy tossers." in fact, that tactic is the only that saves my bounty hunter friend when we're on one of the battlefields scattered about. and it works well.

wickedHangover, i'm with you. i wouldn't refuse any changes (i'm sure you wouldn't either) but we are far from useless or completely broken. part of the reason i love fencer is that you can ONLY be great if you have strategy. with our fairly high HAM costs, every move has to count. and that seems realistic. you don't just go all out and kill them in a craze (unless you're a very large viking). that doesn't seem like the fencer way. we study, make precise attacks, and we use knowledge and skill rather than strength to defeat an enemy. we die pretty easily. that's why it's a feat to win a battle as a fencer. when you're a high-damage, composite wearing commando... well, there's about two or three moves that ensure a victory.

again, i have nothing against commandos, bounty hunters, etc. they take strategy as well. i've seen bounty hunters taken down by a single mottled wrix. i can take three at a time with little trouble. i've also seen the same bounty hunter take me down with little effort. each takes skill, i just personally feel that fencing takes more.

exactly right and well said.

haha! | ()\/\/N3D 7|-|15 tHr3@D! (i owned this thread. sorry about hogging the posts.)

and so it begins....

the long road to Teras Kasi Novice with an uncertified VK.

I killed stuff without a swordfor about an hour last night. Getting unarmed xp is so freaking boring that after that firsthour, I logged off and worked on my new guy for the rest of the night.

i tried the bleed trick where you stack your fencer bleeds only, then switch to unarmed. didn't work. so yeah it is slow. remember the survival knife?

[sigh]

i'm halfway through unarmed IV now. this is gonna be... something.

I think unarmed combat is kind of fun, the few times i did it by accident. To me, call me a super SWG geek, I think walking around cities with weapons drawn is impolite. I did read about pistols having holsters at one point but to walk around and wave to people with a sword is kind of silly, so I unequip as many do.

So, as was bound to happen eventually, i wander outside of the city gates and forget to arm my sword a handful of times. I am close to the first skill in unarmed brawler by making this mistake a few times.

SO brings up a question. You master fencer, and suppose you want to use up all your skill points in fighting only, no CH or artisan stuff. Maybe keep a column in scout to climb hills quickly but other than that, all your points go to melee fighting, or even ranged weapons I'm not too biased. Any opinions on the best combo of melee fighting?

I've been down a funny road to fencer. Was doing master dr and got bogged down in crafting so to take a break went searching for a combat class. Got to pistoleer and while it was funI really didn't see much improvement as i gained more skills. I decidedI would give TKA a try and since i was doing the unarmed and had pistol i was gonna drop dr for smuggler. The guy that trained me in unarmed 4 said i should master brawler, the early knockdown really helped so I bought a bunch of weapons and went to town. Fell in love with my curved sword (I'm now running the light saber mod, closest I'll prob get to Jedi) and gaffi stick. I like it so much I prematurely droped all marksman and was gonna do Master Fencer, Medic, and some two handed for the medium armor piercing weapons. My guild needed a slicer so i've added that back to this mix. Hated the pistol requirement though. I found i had to stim myself alot more doing pistol that brawling.