Fencer Archive

Hey guys,

I'm not a sword-user, but I *am* a sword-maker.

When looking for a weapon, do you tend to favor higher damage (and speed) or lower HAM costs?

From looking at the best sword thread, most of y'all seem to prefer damage. And, from general experience, you can get bigger benefits experimenting on damage than you can on HAM when smithing. However, some of the HAM costs can be pretty high on the larger blades, and I understand that fencing is all about the special moves, so...?

I'll give you guys a specific question. Which of these three swords would you prefer (I made them all w/ the same resources, and they're among my best results):

Curved Sword (damage): 58-154, 2.4, 31/56/40

Curved Sword (HAM): 33-99, 3.5, 20/41/26

Sword: 23-105, 3.5, 23/24/24

(both of the curved swords used adv sword cores, but one was tweaked for damage the other efficiency)

thanks in advance!

My answer : I'll take 2 swords, your highest DPS and your lowest HAM.

Most fencers carry at least 2 types of blades at all times:

• greatDPS, forfightingwhile wearing armor (no styles, good for grouping)


• low HAM, for landing lunge -> dizzy, spamming Spin attacks, etc.

I personally carry 4 weapons. My main is a 94-214, 2.4 speed curved sword.

But I also have:

• really high damage Ryyk I keep for grouping,


• a very low HAM vibroblade for doing non-damage specials


• a stun baton, just in case.

That's my complex answer to your simple question

- Washu

Okay mr fancypants, here' s a followup question:

For the low-HAM-special-move weapon, do you want one that's been optimized for high damage or low HAM?

And if all you care about is low HAM for that weapon, why not use a dagger?

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For the low-HAM-special-move weapon, do you want one that's been optimized for high damage or low HAM?

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LOL - I actually would want both!

Low HAM uses (Dagger is fine):

There are a couple key moves for fencers that do little to no damage,but are high HAM. They are Lunge and Dizzy. For these moves, we want them to fire fast as hell, and cost us minimal HAM. If you look through this forum, there is a post where people post instructions for macroing up a dagger for the lunge->dizzy combo.

Low HAM, but optimized for high damage:

I use the vibroblade instead of the dagger for a couple reasons.

1. It's less clutter in my backpack


2. HAM extra HAM cost isn't all that severe.


3. I like using my vibroblade for AE attacks sinse it's decent damage, low HAM, and is armor piercing.

To answer your original quesion ...

Most fencerswill not be as picky as me. If you just want to sell a ton of stuff, then probably make the highest DPS Ryyks, Curved Swords, Vibroblade, and Stun Batons you can.

The freaks like me that have specific requests will likely be bugging you with emails offering to pay top price for a custom blade anyway

Considering my Ryyk is mid-range at 50-153, I'd not mind the same damage number with far lower HAM costs.

Speed is essential, though. Speed > damage, IMO. I do prefer Ryyks over vibroblades, though. Anything that actually looks like a real sword will do.

If you can get me vibroblade performance on a Curved Sword or normal sword, I'd buy it for sure.

None of the three swords you listed would be my primary weapon. The first curved sword *maybe* in a group situation or a beserk/armor friendly situation because of the nice speed, but the HAM's are obviously killer. Vibroblades make good sellers since they have naturally high speed, low HAM's, and are AR1. I'd say tweak those for damage/speed if at all possible. As for Ryyks, only silly people use them for spamming specials, so tweak those for damage also. Curved Swords is a little more iffy, might consider tweaking those for HAM's, although I hear lots of Fencers attracted to them because of speed...

For me, it's not so much the HAM's on the weapon itself (although that *does* matter), so much as the weapon class. If I know the weapon is palgued by high HAM's, I'm not looking to buy one for spamming specials. *shrug*

I prefer to have 2 swords also.

I use one to use special moves with and get them bleeding bling and dizzy....once thats done though I switch out to my heavy hitter, yet still quick blade. If neccesary I pop them with the stunbaton a few times.

Low Ham costs on low dmg weapons like the vibroblade and curved sword are ideal, the lower the better.

The Vibroblade is better then the dagger in my opinon because of the armor piercing ability.....

unless the look of the vibro blade turns you off, there isn't much point in using anything else

i currently make 143 top end damage, 2.6 spd vibroblades, highest ham is 34 or 35

with the ar 1 rating on the vibro blade it will outdamage a 190 damage rykk or 1h curved, if you fight in pvp most folks will be using armor, if you fight armored mobs in pve its going to make a huge difference.

Got two fencers that testall my swords for me when i get a new schematic and both of them have logged the results and the vibroblade always outperforms the other two. If you haven't tested top end vs top end then you should find a weaponsmith that can create the best of all three and log the results for a few fights and watch how well your ham bars hold up.

Wonderful description Tlaloc!

It's true though. A fencer needs multiple weapons. We want the highest dps we can get without sacrificing the other benefits.

- Low HAM for special spamming (vibroblade is lowest.. even a good curved sword seems to take to much)

- High dps for groups. I prefer slower and harder hitting, the condition seems to wear WAY to fast on a quick sword.

- Fast sword. If you have dps over 2, then it's not fast. This is the sword I use for starting a fight with a player. Lay them out quick...

- Stun Baton. I don't have it yet because resources not available, but its there for armor wearing rebels! grrr!

I haven't started to use Vibroblades yet so up till the last patch I never really cared about HAM except to bump up my stats to accomodate the weapon I preferred - Curved Swords, which uses a lot of action pool points.

I basically bought my Curved swords based on base-max damage then had them sliced and carried a damage centric blade and also another one for speed.

So my dream curved sword would be one with a high range mods of at least 10+, decent HAM (nothing exceeding 45+), high base and high max damage (so far I've only found 73-165), at least 2.5spd or under, and at an attainable price whereby I could buy a few at a time and chance a good slice.