Swordsman Archive

Hey Gang

This may have been discussed already, but I could not find it under a search so forgive me if it has already been posted ad nausea

First of all, I would like to say that this board has offered me a lot of information, and some really solid advice. Thank you to all of the experienced Swordsman out there who have documented their expertise. Hopefully we can hear some more of that here

I am currently 2/1/1/1 in swordsman, but I have qualified to level in all of the categories except finesse, so I can move up one block in any of the other trees, please take that into consideration. I am also Master Scout, 1/0/2/1 Ranger, 2/2/1/2 CH, and 1/1/12/4 Medic. Ranger will go first when I need more skill points

I have a 2H curved sword that does around 65-300/2.4 (post slice) and a hammer that does 167-579/4.2 (post slice) so they are pretty close in DPS. I switch back and forth depending on the resists of the creatures I fight. What I am looking for is a series of attacks that seems to work well. I have read through the posts and it seems that many people like to use intimidate to start off a fight and throw in a couple of mind bleeding hits. What else works for you? Personally, due to my lack of experience I tend to use Area Hit 2 a lot. With my hammer if often lands for over 1500 damage. Unfortunately, being Transdoshan, my mind bar is extremely low (I know, stupid lizards) so after one or two area hits, the creatures just have to smack me in the head and I'm out. If anyone is curious about the creatures I typically fight, lately it has been Pubam's on Endor, and whatever aggro's me on the way to the Pubam camps...

Could a few people throw out some ideas for what attacks tend to flow well together? For example

Intimidate

Mind Hit 1

Head Hit 2

I look forward to getting some feedback on this!

-Issox

Shadowfire Server

Personally, I think it doesnt matter much at that level. I have this suggestion though. Hurry up the Techniques tree to get the speed you need to use the powerhammer. Given that your mind is low, you need to use that power hammer. Plus, I found leveling after mastering techniques to be much much faster. Others who took a different route tell me that it seems better to do tech as well.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks Morath. I still have not trained yet, so I guess I will throw the points into the tech tree. Does anyone else have any other ideas?

-Issox

Shadowfire

You definately want to start any encounter off with intimidate. It can more than half the damage they do and lower their successful hit rate on you, meaning you take much less punishment.

You probably still want to throw a posture change attack in there every 30 seconds (such as a sweep or area attack) as it does still not only do damage to the target but cause them a minor delay in attacking you back, again adding up to less damage you take on your end.

Swordsmen tend to not get very much toughness, which is your class 'absorb' rating, so you want to use these kinds of tools to lessen the damage done to you. Being a swordsman is all about doing a ton of damage to a ton of people when present, but that doesn't mean you don't have the options to give yourself a few defensive bonuses through some of the skills you have.

As far as specific attacks, it really depends on the situation. Are you in a group? Are you solo? What weapon are you using?

The head hit attacks are great when solo so you can concentrate on one pool to do all your damage, the downside is they tend to cost you more HAM so you end up hurting yourself a bit more (depending on your secondaries).

The Two Hand Hit and other non head/mind attacks are great in groups as you'll do mostly health pool damage (like most others SHOULD in groups) and are the ones that carry the posture change effects and at higher levels dizzy (currently busted on monsters but still great on humanoids).

That's really all I can offer in general. Oh, and until you're closer to master or at least have that Warrior title (Master Finesse) I'd stay away from the power hammer. The accuracy penalties are just too great compared to the positives of the 2h curved. And bad accuracy on a slow weapon equals a lot of time spent trying to kill something while it's munching on you. Even at master I tend to avoid the power hammer unless I need to deal serious mind bleeds or think I can one hit kill somthing (in pvp).

-Shi

Thanks Shimond, I appreciate the advice. I was wondering, has anyone else had a problem with queing attacks and not having them function? Several times lately I will queue up a few specials and my character will just stand there, I can see that attacks are coming out of the queue (they turn green and disappear) and I am losing the HAM that correlates to the attack cost, but there is no animation and the creatures take no damage. I end up incapping myself without even touching the creature.

Anyone else had this problem? If so, did you find a way to resolve it?

-Issox

Shadowfire