Fencer Archive

I'm close to mastering both Fencer and Pikeman and I've come to the conclusion that, apart from the obvious flaws in the brawler professions, the two biggest problems with the Fencer are the weapons they use and the Mind cost of their moves.

1. The Fencer lacks any good weapons with Armour Piercing. They only have the Vibro Blade with AP1 and nothing with AP 2 and this seriously hinders their damage output in a fight.

In a duel against non-armour wearing players or against any creature with AP 0, I find the Fencer works just fine. However, the second you go up against tougher creatures on planets like Dantooine or Endor, their damage output drops *dramatically*... and so does the exp. With my Long Vibro Axe, I can easily dish out several thousands points of damage against heavily armored targetsand rake in the exp. The high LVA HAM costs or poor range modifiers simply don't make up for this because once you start to master the profession your accuracy increases and its also quite easy to boost your Strength and Quickness so you don't suffer "burn" from using the special moves. I also find that as my polearm speed is increasing, it's not really all that slower than the Fencer due to the 1 sec limit.

2. Talking about HAM costs, another problem with the Fencer is the high Mind cost of their special attacks. Although every elite brawler profession drains the pools (Health for Pikeman, Action for Swordsman, Mind for Fencer) the key difference is that Health and Action can be *buffed* by doctors and *healed* during fights. Mind cannot and this quite simply puts Fencers at a major disadvantage.

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I would like to see Fencers getting some weapons with good armor piercing - perhaps increasing the AP on the Ryyk Blade to AP1. Heck, even reducing the accuracy modifiers of a weapon to compensate.

I would also like to see the Mind cost of Fencer moves reduced to compensate for that fact that Mind is the hardest of the three pools to buff (a Master doc can turn my body into a killing machine for 2 hours but do nothing for my mind) and impossible to heal during battle.

i agree with you... but i believe we need some ap 2 weapons.... as we r totally useless to ar 2 creatures...

Well some one uses a curved sword. Only time i ever came close to getting incapped by mind is when i'm stupid eg starting a fight with mind much much lower than action or health usually be cause of healing and overconfidence or when i'm using a curved. Also you forget about the stun baton , while np AP its stun damage is just as good if not better in some circumstances. These arguements are not say your point isnt valid onfact it is very true i just point these out exceptions so someone reading the article gets all the facts.

Speaking as a Master Musician I can tell you that I can buff your mind stats.

I run out of mind a lot, but thats only cause my wife buffs my h+a into the 2ks and with 2k quickness ima rock, so I spam specials =)

Thanks for all your posts. A few points in return:

1. The Mind cost for fencer isn't higher than any other profession's "primary"HAM move costbut I'm just pointing out that it's slighly unfair that we have to deal with high Mind costs while the other brawler professions can get their most highly used stat (Health or Action) healed during battle.A doc could quite easily keep a Swordsman alive in battle while he spams specials all day long but what can anyone do for the Fencer? (On a side note, I would really like to see Entertainers given the ability to heal Mind during battle)

2. I think Fencer's weapons basically suck. Lacking an AP2 weapon really hinders our performance while the VibroBlade and Stun Baton have such crappy dps their use is limited (you have to be facing a 75% kinetic resist creature before a Stun Baton is worthwhile). Fencers need better weapons! Weaponsmiths should be able to make better VibroBlades, Stune Batons! And be able to make Rantok Swords!

Good tip anyway: the best weapon I've found for a Fencer is the Gaderiffi Baton =) I had one made and sliced and the stats are 2.4spd 218 max dmg and only 19 Mind. The Health and Action costs are high but with doc buffs or Tattooine Sunburn and 500 Focus, I can spam specials constantly. It also does more damage than a VibroBlade, even considering the AP1, plus with master footwork you hit the 1sec limit anyway. I just wish it looked as cool as the Ryyk Blade =)

Being a Fencer/Medic stinks even more than just being a fencer. I constantly have to switch to pistol and be careful about my Mind.....

Kells wrote:
Speaking as a Master Musician I can tell you that I can buff your mind stats.

during combat?

The one caveat that I would want to add about our value against armored opponents is that it depends on their resistances. The stun baton does allow decent damage against targets of any armor class who are vulnerable. Even that plus, however, has its limits. The stun baton has far too high a mind cost to use it throughout a fight. And then there are those pesky creatures who do not have stun vulnerability. Against them, I sometimes feel my time would be better spent making stims.

Kells, can musicians buff themselves?

I'm almost master musician and working on master fencer as well. I would absolutely love to be able to buff my own mind stats, but I can't figure out how to.

~L

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Lolic wrote:

Kells, can musicians buff themselves?

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Unless it has changed recently the answer is no. Dancers have the same buff, but it doesnot improve the dancer's mind, only the minds of those watching. It takes a fairly long time watching to get the effect of the buff.

Wait wait wait... I'm not a fencer, but i've looked at a lot of melee weapons... where's this complaint about draining the mind pool coming from? It doesn't seem any higher than any other class, lower than some.

First lets look at the Mind costs of a few Fencer weapons:

• Vibroblade = 16


• Curved Sword = 34


• Gaffi Stick (w/core)= 20


• Stun Baton (w/core) = 46

Now let's try 2H

• 2h Axe = 20


• Cleaver = 30


• 2HCS = 35

Now pikes:

• Lance = 32


• VL = 33

Finally, let's look at some pistoleer weapons (the 'fencers of ranged combat')

• scout blaster = 11


• fwg5 = 18


• Tangle pistol (heh) = 22

Sorry I don't have stats handy on power hammers or LVA's. Or carbines and rifles in general. But we know that most rifles have very high ham costs.

However, my point is, theMind costs of 1H swords don't really seem that bad to me. I mean, the curved sword has high HAM costs in general, and it isn't out of line with other High -HAM weapons. I will admit that the mind cost of the stun baton is.. curious, but it's that supposed to be an oddbal weapon anyway?

The complaint comes from a combination of weapon speed and damage. To achieve damage that approaches that of other melee users, fencers must typically use more specials. FInd a weapon shop, compare a two handed and one handed curved sword (bearing in mind that two hand is AP1 and one hand is APO). Just on base damage think about how many more times you would have to swing a one-handed sword to get equivalent damage. Then consider the spread in specials. You really need to group with both classes to get this accurately but before I abandoned curved swords the disparity was something like 1200 average hit versus 3000 average hit. Adjust the HAM to take into account the extra uses and that is where the problem arises.

When you compare the mind cost of the two and think about the mind HAM investment to get damage to a two handed sword I think you will get the picture. So part of it is really just shorthand among fencers who all know the nature of the problem who are saying that mind costs are too high for the number of times you have to use specials to causecompetitive damage. Pistoleers for sure have some of the same problem but have some advantages not available to fencers. (like range) You can look at any of the threads here to see those explained. The vibroblade and gaderiffi baton have low HAM, but even look at the damage. Vibros are low damage but AP1, and gaderiffi batons are AP0 with damage that is about equivalent to a curved sword. Once a fencer has enough speed, it is a must to switch from curved blades, But the fact that it is better does not mean that is does not have some of the same problems.

I am guessing that the average fencer even in solo goes down far more often from mind damage than any other reason. With broken defensive skills and the melee related bugs, you cannot kill much without relying on specials at least until you are able to use a gaderiffi, you just kill yourself trying to use a curved sword or continuously using specials with a vibro. The stun baton---the only thing that you can use against medium armor and then only if there is a stun vulnerability--has low damage and the highest HAM cost on your list.