Fencer Archive

But I know very little about your profession and I don't believe I've ever seen on. I'm a master combat medic and I'm looking for a skill to complment that. Pistoleer is fun and effective with the bleed/poison stake but my poison now at master are extremely effective. Is the fencer a fun profession? What are your stregnths? Your weakness? How do you do in PvP? Thanks

I've already made that choice. By the time I do make fencer, I can always hope they're fixed.

I hate to disappoint or scare you off right now, but we basically suck. At least compared to, say, every other combat class out there. You're way better off sticking with pistoleer. We don't have any real strengths as compared to TKA or 2H, our weaknesses are that out weapons are very few, are not ranged, and are by far the weakest of the melee types, which is not made up for due to the speed cap that we quickly reach. In PVP we get ourselves horribly embarassed by opponents who simply run away from us and shoot over their shoulder. Sorry to be so negative, but I'm just telling you the way it is. Hopefully our day will come and the fencer shall rule the battlefield, but that time is certainly not now. Regardless, I'm sticking with the class and advancing up the CH tree to make up for the weaknesses in Fencer.

Right now with not even novice fencer, I do just as much dmg as my pistol with double tap(600-800, not including the light AP on the blade). If not more. Plus with one hand hit it costs 11 less action and is faster. Not to mention the one-handed toughness bonuses mean I take less dmg than I would have with my pistol, a little less, but it's still less. I can nowsolo mobs Ihaddifficulty with when I used my pistol.

I doubt I will see a huge difference from this point on though. At least until fencers are fixed. But by then I should have at least be half way towards novice fencer. For now I haven't dropped pistoleer anyways, since I still have enough points to keep both.

I dropped pistoleer for brawling, aiming at fencer. I can already, at one-hand swords III, kick out as much damage as a pistoleer (although I do miss bleeding shots). I'm having fun. The profession isn't perfect, but for hunting big avians solo, I find it handy.

I look forward to actually making Fencer.

No profession is perfect. They all have problems. They all have their niche. Read up on the top 10 list, then be warned.

Dr. Vema Gara, Valcyn

I made novice pistoleer before switching to Brawler and working up the one handed branch, and have just reached Novice Fencer (Novice Swordsman?!?)

On the whole I feel I deal out more damage as a fencer, this might be to do with my curved sword which has max dam of 170 odd (Unsliced which reminds me…) as opposed to a DX2 pistol which again wasn’t sliced but was pretty good spec.

My main difficulty, which perversely makes life more interesting, is managing aggro. As a pistoleer I could plink away at a target and if I drew too many I could run off, string them out a little and try again. It is much more difficult as a melee. Although storming into the middle of an Imperial camp and opening with an area attack and wasting them all and ending with a sliver of life is quite a buzz, it isn’t the best idea for some of the tougher beasties out there!

I still use my pistol for drawing out aggressive creatures, that combined with mask scent and a pet I can keep most things off me.

Anyhow I am enjoying Melee much more than ranged, probably because it is a little more challenging and is a step closer to my original vision for my character as a craftsman, turned fighter who created his own weapons.

Do Both!

Both pistol and fencing do body/heath damage, they work great together. My goal is to get body shot 3 and master fencer, so I can health shot 1, health shot 2, body shot 3, then switch to fencer mod . I have heard health shot 1 & 2 will stack and healthhit 1 & 2 will stack, but don't know if all 4 will stack together? If they do it sould be a great combo.

Don't let any of the naysayers scare you away from fencing. I'm a long time master fencer, and despite any shortcomings we may have, I love the profession. I can dish out 2000+ dps with specials (granted, I kill myself pretty quick , but still), I have some of the best bleeds in the game (1000+ and 500+ that stack), I get some decent defense bonuses, and... its FUN. Beating on someone/something from 40m can't compare to the rush you get in beating on it from 4m.

Now, there are a lot of arguments as how the different melee classes stack up against each other right now, and I might even agree that fencers are the weakest melee, but I think you'll see them even out relatively soon. So, if you definitely want to drop pistols for a melee profession, pick up whichever style appeals to you the most.

One caveat - we do have relatively high mind costs compared to other melee classes, so combining with master combat medic might not be the best combo...

Jomam - Blademaster/Master CH, Scylla