Swordsman Archive

Kinda sad, I just now hit enough XP for Master Sword Techniques. That would make me a 0442 swordsman and it took a whole lot of time and effort and armor repairs and wound healing to get just that much.

Sucks to give it up, because if swordsmen ever become an awesome class I know what a pain it will be to get it back.

But I got to play a friend's creature handler..... that is mad fun. Having a Rancor help lay down the beatdown in PvP is just too awesome, and with 18000 mind pool, it can tank regular stuff all day. You get it to do a "trick" and all it's mind wounds and damage are instantly healed between fights. 1 piece of food will heal all of it's wounds. No armor to upkeep (you don't get hit) and you can use it as a meat shield while you raise your ranged weapon XP. You can get all kinds of pets, some run fast and poison from a distance, it's really just the thing to have for PvP. And PvE.

Swordsman is fun and effective in PvEbut I just can't justify it. Even the upcoming (theoretical) change with a new defense ability doesn't thrill me. Mind heals don't thrill me unless they somehow let medics do it. Doesn't sound like they even want to allow mind heals in combat, so it's worthless (or they'll give it to Squad Leader... I don't even know any Squad Leaders).

I'm tired of being the only person in my guild who needs new armor on a regular basis and having so many skill points into something that's almost worthless in PvP. I know I'll regret not being able to break out a sword when that pistoleer closes, but I'll have some small comfort when my Rancor eats him.

I wish I knew for sure what the devs plans were, but they're not sayin, so here goes. I'm taking the plunge.

why not just get first aid 4, diag 1 or 2, and pharm 4 and still be MCH.. thats what I am.

You can use your pets for ranged and tanking and heal your self pretty well in the mean time.. I think you should sleep on it..

Problem is I'm also almost master rifleman. I also love to PvP, so being a Swordman/CH isn't nearly as attractive as Rifleman/CH.... with my rifle and a good pet, I could tear down anything except a Bounty Hunter, and maybe them too if I'm careful.

I had hoped that rifle/sword would be a good combo, since both attack the mind and swordsman would be something good to switch to for close ranges.

It didn't really occur to me that having a pet would accomplish the same thing, only better because I can use the pet and rifle at the same time! The biggest bonus I get from being a swordsman is, imo, melee toughness, which only applies when I hold my sword. If it applied all the time, I'd probably have to keep swordsman. I'm going to try and forget skills 1 at a time just in case there a sudden major change, I won't have so far to backtrack, but I'm not holding my breath. Or should I say, I'm not going to hold my breath any longer.

I mostly just wish I'd thought of it 3 weeks ago.

ya IagIag is doin what i am doin

its mostly a question of playstyle and how you enjoy fighting.

My number one priority is to enjoy myself and not be bogged down with a broken profession and so far our's isn't really broken like some are... it just needs some TLC.

My second priority is PvP .. not because im a FPS greifer powergamer type but because I'm playing SWG with a GCW mindset so I need to kill the other side.

so as for me.. i like getting in the heat of things.. face to face.. slugging it out. I also spend alot of time alone even when pvp so I often need support ie: pets and med skills.

Your wise in dropping one at a time.. I have dropped most of my brawler skills (was MB) in exchange for the med stuff.

Keep us posted

I've hit Skill Decisions myself.....

Right now I'm part CH, part Sword, part Marskman and Part Medic. I'veI considered:

Getting rid of sword and going Commando/CH. But then I realized that I hate pets.

So I am going to get rid of CH for certain.

That leaves these options:

1) Doctor/Swordsman

2) Commando/Swordsman.

3) Commando/Swordsman/Medic (with master in sword only).

I'm going for Option 3 for the short term anyway to try things out. I'm pretty close to Commando (just need rifle and 2 levels of pistol and unarmed). I'm not sure if I really need to Master Commando, as I plan on focusing on the Flame Thrower.

rancor lasts 8 seconds vs me sure you wanna quit swordsmen?

I was pistoleer(expert gunfighter), master ch and had some medic skills... was very attachd to my pets, then i took the risk and gave them all up.. now master swords/doc. Dont think ill be going back lol. (still have a webmaster hehe)

I have posted a few pro swordman posts on the rifleman forum. I gave up CH as well, just never needed the help once I reachednovice swordsman and rifle special abilities one.

You ever get buffed by a doctor and use a powerhammer? It has a very low mind cost even while wearing a helmet. Really takes the sword finesse column to weild effectivly but it really has incredible damage with special abilities for low HAM cost when buffed, and will quickly crush anything in the game not blast resistant.

I gave up my master dancer to be a CH. Now I'm a Master Swordsman and CH now.

Pets became my shield, my sword is used to protect my pets. (kill fast less damage to pet) We work together and it's fun, although I was killed occassionally because I stand too close to the monsters.

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KendredTkm wrote:
rancor lasts 8 seconds vs me sure you wanna quit swordsmen?

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Heh. And in those 8 seconds you're tanking the Rancor I can shoot you about 6 times in the head with my rifle and then kite you if that doesn't finish it right there.

The real issue is PvE.

Do you fight on Dantooine? It's great for herbivore meat and Pickets and Bols are great XP and there's plenty of them. Iget about 4000 XP per kill and there's lairs all over the place.

Problem is the mind pool. I have my mind pool jacked up to 950, 600 focus, 600 willpower. Any L15 pet will have more mind pool than this. Mid-range CH pets willhave thousands of mind pool points, and they regenerate mind pool instantly if you know the "trick" command.

I fight a picket, I get hit in the head a few times and even with a helmet and intimidation, this can easily knock me down by a few hundred mind pool points. Gotta sit and wait for it to regen. Fighting 2 or 3 in a row is doable, but it all depends on how lucky they get with hitting me in the head. Without my pet to help, if 2 come we usually get incap'd because I get hit in the head too many times. I have a nice kinetic armor helm so I only take like 30% damage from hits, but it doesn't take much when you only have a pool of 950.

With a pet that has a mind pool of 5000, you don't have to worry. The doctor can't heal it, but he doesn't need to. When we fight with one of our CH friends, he just sends his Rancor right into the middle of 5 pickets and he tanks them all while we pick them off. If I tried that I'd last about 10 seconds and fall over from mind pool hits.

If mind heals get implemented, then brawlers could be a contender for these higher level areas. Without mind heals, tanking stuff with more than about 11,000 HAM is, at best, a ticket to downtime that Creature Handlers don't have. They're talking about implementing faster mind pool regneration in camps with entertainers, or maybe during battle with Squad Leaders, but neither of these helps me -- I need mind heals during the fight if I'm going to tank stuff much more serious than the Dantooine mobs. And I don't know any Squad Leaders and don't care to be a slave to some other profession that hardly anyone plays.

My real point here is saying I think all brawlers should think about this same decision before they get too deep into the profession. I think the advantages of Creature Handling are better than ours, and brawlers have serious limitations whereas Creature Handlers really have none. It's understandable if you simply don't like dealing with pets, of course, but I can think of no reason why CH isn't all around better than brawlers.

And while you can be a CH/Swordsman to good effect, I think CH/Pistoleer or some other ranged class would be better. For one thing, it's better in PvP, but even if you don't care about that, pets mostly hit health, swordsmen are geared for mind. You're probably better off as a CH/TKA or whichever one hits health the most (Fencer?), so you compliment your pet better.

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KendredTkm wrote:
rancor lasts 8 seconds vs me sure you wanna quit swordsmen?

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Not sure what planet your rancors are on but if you are talking about Ancient Rancors on Dathimir you are full of it. I beat on them for a good 3 minutes with a group buffed to the hilt with a high powered sliced power hammer. Maybe a newborn...

there are definatley some "fishstories" getting intothese threads lately

i hear people making some HUGE claims about sololing 6 players in PvP and killing level 50 mobs in seconds.

next thing you know there will be posts about killing a Dark Jedi Masterby throwing a shoe at it...