Fencer Archive
Thread: Advice for a young Fencer.
Please? 
Throughout all the changes in my plans for this game, every change in my characters plan, everything, since 6 months before I even had this game, I wanted to be a fencer. I am finally a novice fencer, and even at One-handed three I was **edit** good at PVP with friends... Now, if I fight any other class, even of equal skills, I am utterly destroyed in PVP...
If they are ranged, I have to /follow /burstrun and /unarmedhit2 for 10 minutes, while their puny blasters bounce off me... This rarely works, they simply hit me about once a second, for 20-50 damage, while I hit once every 5 seconds for 40...
If they are a Teras Kasi they spam a single blurring combo that makes my health drop like a dead snorbal on a hill, I score three hits which they are somehow resistant to, and they take a maximum of 20hp damage during the whole fight before I'm down.
If they are a combat medic they disease me then run around in circles waiting for me to incap.
If they are a bounty hunter they set me on fire with a pistol and I drop dead quite quickly.
If they are a pikeman I'm hit with 4 different stacked bleeds and then I fall over.
And finally, if they are a two handed swordsman, they hit me with mind bleed and I slowly waste away, while we hit each other for mediocre damage.
Oh, and if they are a fencer, we generally have a good fight but they tend to have some more advanced attacks and win, unless I dizzy them (Which I am horribly good at somehow, must be a mix of stats and species and a few things perhaps) and let them fall over with a lunge attack... All it takes is one dizzy on most players and they can't stand up for the next ten minutes, the worst I've had done to me is a 10 seconds dizzy, and I've inflicted TEN MINUTES of immobility? O_o
Anyway, I am a multiskill trandoshan, I usually wear chitin armour or just my stylish black leather jacket and combats, I use no spice and I can't get any foods or drinks at the moment. As far as I can see, fencing has no bleed attacks and no knockdown attacks, and it has no mind hits or action hits either... so what HAVE we got?
I need a guide to fencing from an expert... Help!
Jakkar, Starsider, Tatooine.
Oh, I'd like some advice on the weapons aswell, I personally have a sliced Curved Sword, created by Mira Mar, that I recieved as a gift from a dancer friend in Mos Eisley.. It has about 70-165 damage, and 1.3 speed, then I add berserk and I can hit about three times a second... Lovely weapons...
But could I have a summary of the strengths and weaknesses and special features and notable points of:
Rantok
Ryyk
Curved
Vibroblade
Stunbaton
Sword
Daggers
Knives
Anything else, if I've missed something.
oy vae....
To al fencers out there your 2 best weapons are as follows Gafi Baton (yes hamm costs are high but this beauty hits hard) and the vibro blade (low hamm costs and u can get one almost to 170 max damage)
curved sword isnt bad but ur hamm can go down very fast, stun baton (only for pvp againts armored players) Ryyk can we say decore and rantok, for what you have to do stab jabba with it, its crap in combat, better then the cyyk and curved but WTH im sure most of us where expecting somethuing way better.
*looks around... watches tumbleweed roll by*
Lazy fencers! Help me!
*bump*
as far as it goes, you've got the basic idea of fencing. we won't win a fight unless they don't kite, or aren't a TKA. that's just the way it is now. things are changing, though, so don't make any decisions yet. we're all kinda just putzing around the galaxy at the moment, waiting for our day.
hope that helps a little. let me know if you have further questions.
RubiusBrasion wrote:
To al fencers out there your 2 best weapons are as follows Gafi Baton (yes hamm costs are high but this beauty hits hard)
Ok, lemme defend my love that is the Gaffi: The HAM costs are heaviest in the health, which is a dream come true for a Trandoshan fencer. This weapon kicks some serious buttocks if you have decent focus and maxed Quickness (if you're a trandoshan). Strength I find is just fine at it's minimum of 600 for us trannies, so you can spend those extra points on whatever else you want..Also, though, I suggest getting first aid 4, pharm 3, and organic chem 4 in medic so you can make Stimpack C's for those times when your gaffi does drain your health/action. The big downside of the gaffi is the speed..but that can be fixed if you have footwork 4. The Gaffi is my pride and joy..It helped me kill an eye-shotting BH once!
Hands down, gaffi is best for the trandoshan fencers..But there are basic requirements for being effective with it, as it does tend to drain your HAMs with extended special spamming..hence, some medic is in order, and I've found that it helps me just "dandily". Only other thing I use is the vibroblade..awesome HAM cost..AP1 is nice to have..damage would need some work, but the speed is also very nice.
Every Ryyk blade I've seen has decent damage but the HAM costs were too high for my liking..also slower than a curved.
Rantok just plain stinks. I see nothing good about the "Dreaded Rantok".
I've never used or seen one of the swords that are just called "Swords" made by a master weaponsmith..Only seen them as Loot.
I had a dagger made by an artisan once, and it was terribly crappy..but I don't know if they're any good made by master weaponsmiths.
Every stun baton I've seen has had too high a HAM cost for my liking, decent damage, and decent speed. Also does stun damage which is neet, I guess..but I don't use them.
Sooooooooooo really, the Gaffi is best in my opinion. Weapon choice really depends on your style of play, as well..perhaps you don't care for hitting fast and just want to hit hard, or maybe you like to be able to do specials constantly with little HAM loss. I myself like balance in my weapons, hence I have a gaffi. Skill mods earned in the Fencer tree compensate for the speed, damage is already awesome, and HAM cost is decent enough that I can't really complain..but I wouldn'trecommend a Gaffi for someone who isn't a Trandoshan, just due to the points spent for the strength needed to wield one more effectively.
the vibro i haven't touched in a long time. even AP1 at 170 damage doesn't usually beat 300 - 25% for AR1.
send me an email sometime, i'll give you a stun baton to try out. with a good damage slice, these are wicked against those composite wearers. max damage of about 200. and it all goes through. if you get one of those, it'll beat a gaffi by about 50 points (300 damage gaffi - 50% for comp. armor).
stick and stones may break your bones, but stones are for kiters. so yeah. eat hot stick, scum. (i'm so indirectly vulgar)
I don't know anyone who can honestly handle the havoc that is a curved sword's HAM costs. Or a stun baton's (although I've seen few stunners, the ones I've seen have had HAM costs that would knock your socks off). Sure, this curved can out-do a vibro damage-wise, or this stunner can out-do a gaffi damage-wise to someone wearing composite..but take into consideration that just smacking the enemy will not bring them down. Specials are always in order since our damage sucks anyways..and if you spam any special using a curved, you're killing yourself (in my experience). Although I can't say the same about a stunner since I've never used one, but the HAM costs resembled that of a curved's on the ones I saw.
I am not that experienced, but I like my vibro, I just got it, and it has 17-28-17 and is very nice when you can spam specials in a tight spot and not worry about ham costs. Oh and the damage is only 143, which is annoying, but I haven't had it sliced yet. If I need any backup in damage I just pull out my FWG5 Pistol which does 210 (I KNOW IT"S NOT A SWORD, but it's helpful in a tight situation, especially since I can health shot quickly w/ it)
I guess the reason I don't use gad is, well obviously ham costs, but also cause it's f'n ugly, at least with my vibro I can look like a rogue or assassin or some other devious damage doer. Oh and if you want to look like a cop than GO HEAD, use the stun batton!
Oh yes, and if you are on Wanderhome contact me if you want to get any awesome melee weapons, we need to get more Weaponsmiths making 1h weapons.
-Nobu
tere is of course some info acking.. as someone mentioned above being a trandosian fencer has its unique benefits that only a wookie can share... kinda. Weboth have high str scores which allow us to wield and smap the bet weapon we fencers can use dm,g wise.... thats teh adv core ganderfii. With an average score of rougly 60 on te health ham cost it is out of reach for others to wield as long or often as we do however it must and i repeat must be in your selection of weapons... I have personally made more then a few fencers go out and get tem one cause either they had more skil then me and got beat or they were master and got scared by almost losing to me...
The other 2 weps i woul say to ave are the viboblade for when you ave those long fight or wen you need to have the low ham costs for starting a due with the dizzy lunge.... and the stun baton adv core also only... for same reasons mentioned in an earlier post.
Excellent replies, especially general reedy. Thanks
As for kiters and such....... well the annoy the hell out of me, but I was sparring with another trandoshan in mos eisley, inside the medcenter infact (Bleh... I get less complaints than I do from the dancers in the cantina, people on a long boring heal like some entertainment)... The first two duels he ran around with his.. pistol of some kind.. I don't think it was an FWG5. and both times I'd take him to quarter h/a/m before I was incapped.. the third duel I simply managed to exploit the walls and obstacles (If people couldn't run through every bit of furniture in the game it would be a huge help to the urban fencer..) in the room, and I took him out very quickly... other than this fighting in the cantina with a friend using a very big rifle... I just charged him and performed three One-hand Hit 1's on him in a row.. by pure luck, everyone single one hit his health pool and I incapacitated a kiter in 6 seconds, a kiter much more powerful than me... Other than that a Master Marksman in my guild, I incapacitated her while chasing and flanking in a street, then as I gloated over her unconcious form the bleed I hadn't yet noticed knocked me out too :\
Also another member of my guild is a mid level bounty hunter with a scatter pistol and LLC, Incapacitated him very quickly considering he ran, but I think it was some shoddy composite he was wearing that assisted me there.. I was using a sword, not a stun baton, and his armour still amplified kinetic damage.
Sorry if that's taken as boasting, just comparing my experiences of fighting against ranged weapon users.
The one Gaffi stick I ever purchased was a 600 credit piece of junk from the mos eisley bazaar. I still can't afford much better... Incomes are a true mystery to most SWG players. It did reasonable damage in PVE, but had about 4.8 speed... pointless. I use my stun baton and curved sword with a vengeance, because they are such evil pieces of machinery, they are incredibly well made. I have no use for huge damage amounts once every 4 seconds, when if I berserk with my sword I hit twice every 1.5 seconds for 100-300 damage. The stun baton is about once a second, for another hundred damage on that, depending on the targets armour... I've done 2150 damage against an NPC with a sword special, and I'm only a 0/0/0/0 Novice fencer.
Being a trandosian has some modifier that makes my stuns EXTREMELY effective, so I'll be sticking with the sword.
Hmm... Interesting idea alert!:
Compare wookie's and Trandosians to any other species. We are as scary as hell... Do we get a double modifier to our chances and effectiveness of Intimidate and Warcry? 
Keep posting your opinions on weapons effectiveness and techniques for duelers... I am learning... It's just the **edit** two-handed swordsmen and their mind hit that get me, and the BIG lightning cannon/eyeshot users. I wear a Ubese helmet with 14% kinetic resistance, and I have mind, and both its substats capped with stat migration, I can still only take a 2hander to the brink of death before they get me, not beyond. My only (and best 
) success against a two handed swordsman was a guy, almost a master, with a powerhammer... I plain lunged him and dizzied him, left himon the floorfor 5 minutes leaving me to stand on his stomach hacking away at him, while his wookie friend kept healing him. I incapacitated him in the end! >:]