Swordsman Archive
Thread: Uh, question... 2-Handed Curved Sword vs. Cleaver?
I want to like the Cleaver, I really do. But my 2H Curved is faster, does comparable damage, has lower HAM cost, and has +11 to hit (rather than a negative). Maybe when I finish up those last two boxes.... 
I was seriously considering some cleaver after I became upper level swordman but not yet hit master, However, these are the things that i have noticed:
a pretty good speed sliced cleaver: It will have a dmg of around 100-230's, speed 2.5'ish (although not as action intensive)
that compare w/ a pretty good damaged sliced 2hcs, which is around 80-320's, speed. 2.5
now.. let's reverse the scenarios for another comparison
a pretty good dmg sliced cleaver: it will be around 130's-290's, speed 3.4
a speed sliced PH: it will be around 130-460's, speed 3.7' ish, although less accurate.
That's jus what i noticed. You have to decide what's best for you.
Daboora
Another factor to consider is your species. As a wookiee, I have high strength and I prefer the weapons that take the most from your health (two-handed axe, cleaver, powerhammer). My quickness is at least 200 points lower than strength, and the two-handed sword eats through my action like crazy. If you are rodian for example, with high quickness and stanima, the two-handed curved is a better bet.
If you are low level and still in the brawler tree, always get a weapon that is fast and has bonuses to hit. The two handed curved sword is ideal in this situation with the two-handed axe also viable if you have much higher strength than quickness for example.
Once you are a novice swordsman and have at least two boxes in sword techniques for speed, I would recommend playing around with all the swordsman weapons and finding what is right for you. The only weapon I didn't like using at low level swordsman is the powerhammer. Use it for mindbleed only and in rare cases when the monster is way more kinetic resistant than blast.
I dont have problems with any of the speeds... I just miss a bit with the cleaver and a lot with the hammer. So I use the curved sword despite it looking stupid.
my weapons are as follows:
2hCurved Sword: 61-248 1.7 speed
2h Curved Sword: 80-327 2.5 Speed
2h Cleaver : 100-219 2.4 Speed
2h Cleaver: 129-282 3.4 Speed
For leveling I would say, Curved Sword. Not only is the speed better, especially if it is sliced for speed (I had one with of speed of 1.6), but I also have +10 at all ranges whereas the Cleaver has a -8 or something like that.
When you get higher levels the speed issue isn't really an issue as has been mentioned above.