Swordsman Archive

Ok guys, looks like the following template builds are extremely popular. I was hoping to start a thread where we can discuss the pros/cons between them.

1. Master Swordsman | Master Doctor | Any Basic Profession + 1 box

Counterattack +110
Defense Vs. Blind +10
Defense Vs. Dizzy +20
Defense Vs. Intimidate +20
Defense Vs. Knockdown +25
Defense Vs. Posture Change (Down) +10
Defense Vs. Stun +50
Melee Defense +20
Ranged Defense +15
Two-handed Melee Accuracy +130
Two-handed melee Center of Being +31
Two-handed Melee Center Of Being Efficacy +120
Two-handed Melee Speed +75
Two-handed Melee Toughness +43

or

2. Master Swordsman | Master Brawler | Doctor 4030

Counterattack +110
Defense Vs. Blind +10
Defense Vs. Dizzy +20
Defense Vs. Intimidate +20
Defense Vs. Knockdown +25
Defense Vs. Posture Change (Down) +10
Defense Vs. Stun +50
Melee Defense +27
Ranged Defense +20
Two-handed Melee Accuracy +135
Two-handed melee Center of Being +36
Two-handed Melee Center Of Being Efficacy +130
Two-handed Melee Speed +80
Two-handed Melee Toughness +48

or

3. Master Swordsman | Master Brawler | TKA 4004 | Fencer 3440 | Medic 2030

Combat Equilibrium +10
Counterattack +110
Defense Vs. Blind +50
Defense Vs. Dizzy +60
Defense Vs. Intimidate +40
Defense Vs. Knockdown +75
Defense Vs. Posture Change (Down) +60
Defense Vs. Stun +50
Meditate +75
Melee Defense +141
Ranged Defense +119
Two-handed Melee Accuracy +135
Two-handed melee Center of Being +36
Two-handed Melee Center Of Being Efficacy +130
Two-handed Melee Speed +80
Two-handed Melee Toughness +48

Dinian :: Master Swordsman - Teräs Käsi Master - Force Adept
Retired producer of fine weapons for Kong Technologies

The first thing that comes to mind is how much more incredible template #3 is versus the other two with respect to sheer tanking power.

However, the last template lacks the 2k heal and the Heal State ability that helps you fend off intimidate/stun/dizzy/blind when fighting the high end mobs.

It seems to me that the distinction between templates #1 and #2 are the group friendliness. Of course both are great considering the healing and first aid potential they have. But template #1 comes on top for the ability to revive players and the buffs -- great for reducing your downtime and can be a lucrative money making scheme if you get in the right starports at the right time

What do you guys think of this summary?

Dinian :: Master Swordsman - Teräs Käsi Master - Force Adept
Retired producer of fine weapons for Kong Technologies

I have tried just about every template out there that has Master Swords in it. First and foremost, MSword/MDoc is great. No down time hunting up buffs, you can buff friends and group-members, pull in some coin on the side.

Here's some of my other templates:

MSword/MPike/MBrwlr/Medic2040 : Kinda crappy....pike is just not worth it and neither is master brawler. I love pikeman, but the + Pike toughness coupled with the crippled speed and accuracy of the Pike class is just sad. Unless you have the mythical 'uber pikes'.... Leaves 13 xtra skill points.

MSword/MRifle/Medic2040: Awesome. I love this template and still have it on my main toon. It leaves some points left over to muddle around in other stuff.32 skill points to play with. You have a ton of damage types and the best AP in the game. PvE King. PvP...well, you are a master rifleman.....

MSword/MFencer/Medic2040: Pretty good. Not having any ranged mitigation blows. Leaves 47 skill points to play around with. I dumped mine into TKA, then swapped back to grab some scout, then swapped back to TKA. Had a lot of fun with this build. PvP...Fencer + COB = loads of fun. PvE, fencer sucks.

MSword/TKM/Medic 2040: About the same as above, except you get meditate, which allows you to clear off disease, FOW and Powerboost.

You may be noticing a trend here....my thought is that unless you go Master Doc, dabbling to Medic 2040 is just as good, if not better as it leaves you with a tremendous amount of options and you can crank your Def Vs States stats to some insane levels. Medic 2040 gives you FA II, to heal off those massive bleeds the NS like to drop and you can use really good Stim Ds. Using bio pants with +25 Med tissues, I can drop a Stim D on myself for around an 1800 pt heal and never lower than 900.

For straight on PvE, having a ridiculously high Melee and Ranged def didn't seem to matter,the uber high Def Vs. States felt like sometimes they were working as intended. This Big Bad Mobs still crack you just as often with lower defenses. My Rifle/Sword toon was just as effective against an Elder as my pure Melee-Tanker sword toon, except that with the Rifle/Sword toon, I get KD'd by the mid-high level mobs annoyingly often...i.e. Protectors, Spellweavers and the like. As a master doc, as soon as you heal off the states, the uber mobs are just gonna reapply them ASAP anyhow, so you will spend all your time trying to heal off states and drop Stim Es on yourself, instead of cranking out damage. Another thought: no ranged mitigation really hurts in the DWB....major pain in the ass.

So my two cents is: Unless you pick Master Doc, dont bother dabbling in it. Just crank up your Def Vs. States as best you can and stick with Medic 2040.

First of all, thanks for your great post. That's exactly the kind of discussion I think we need to get down in this post.

Right now, I'm MSwords/MDoc and its a pretty lethal combination. Particularly if you can get 85%+ effectiveness armor to compensate for the weak toughness score on swords. With the right setup of food/drink/spice in your backpack you are nearly unstoppable with this combo.

Your notes about the Sword/Rifle combination makes it look like the best template going into deathwatch or other high end PVE as an offensive power. However, did you ever find that your ability to tank/sustain yourself as a Swordsman+2040Medic solo against high end PvE to be lacking?

Dinian :: Master Swordsman - Teräs Käsi Master - Force Adept
Retired producer of fine weapons for Kong Technologies

Ah yes, one more thing. I noticed that you avoided Master Brawler in some of your templates. Why is that? That extra 5 weapon speed is pretty huge for a swordsman. Since damage over time as a function of weapon speed skill grows exponentially, its a pretty huge win.

Not only that but the 2 minute intimidate is godly!

Dinian :: Master Swordsman - Teräs Käsi Master - Force Adept
Retired producer of fine weapons for Kong Technologies

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Dinian wrote:

The first thing that comes to mind is how much more incredible template #3 is versus the other two with respect to sheer tanking power.
However, the last template lacks the 2k heal and the Heal State ability that helps you fend off intimidate/stun/dizzy/blind when fighting the high end mobs.
It seems to me that the distinction between templates #1 and #2 are the group friendliness. Of course both are great considering the healing and first aid potential they have. Both also have the ability to revive players which is huge but template #1 comes on top for the buffs -- which can be a lucrative money making scheme if you get in the right starports at the right time
What do you guys think of this summary?

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All Templates are great for PvE if u know how to play them...All depends on how someone lkes to play the game...some trust in healing, some in pure power/damage and some others in a mix of both...i prefere the last one....Doing mostly PvE and fighting High-End-Mobs like NS Elders or Krayts for me healing ablities are much more worth than havin some higher defense! I want to add to more templates....

1. Master Brawler/Swords/TKA 4304/Fencer 0440 and Medic 0040 - PvE/PvP Fighting Template

M-Brawler: +5 on Speed, Toughness, Accuracy and CoB and Lunge2(20m ranged KD) along with Intimidate2 and WarCry2
M-Swords: For dealing Damage/AP2 and havin "Blast"
TKA 4304: Mediation, Toughness and stacking Defense
Fencer 0440: Only for stacking Defense
Medic 0040: Stims "D" or Meduse 39 Stims "E" for healing

U can stun and blind your opponents as a tka. Switching to tka while doing the flipflop cause havin higher toughness or warcry your opponent and mediate some poison/disease/bleeds while this 20sec.. so imo there is no need for first aid in medic...

Defense vs Blind+60
Defense vs Dizzy+65
Defense vs Intimidate+40
Defense vs Knockdown+95
Defense vs Posture Change+90
Defense vs Stun+65
Medicine Use+40
Meditate+75
Melee Defense+102
Ranged Defense+80
Two-handed Melee Center of being+36
Two-handed melee Center of being efficacy+120
Two-handed Melee Speed+80
Two-handed Melee Accuracy+135
Two-handed Melee Toughness+48
Unarmed Accuracy+175
Unarmed Toughness+58

These are the goodies showing up in numbers....

second template i want to add is Master Brawler/Swords/TKA/Medic 0040 and Scout 1000

M-Brawler: +5 on Speed, Toughness, Accuracy and2h-Lunge2(20m ranged KD) along with Intimidate2 and WarCry2.
M-Swords: For dealing Damage/AP2 and havin "Blast"
M-TKA: Mediation, highest toughness and landing Stats like Dizzy, KD, Stun, Blind....
Medic 0040: Stims "D" or Meduse 39 Stims "E" for healing
Scout 1000: Terrain Negotiation and the ability to harvest some meat/hide/bones

Defense vs Blind+20
Defense vs Dizzy+25
Defense vs Intimidate+20
Defense vs Knockdown+45
Defense vs Posture Change+40
Defense vs Stun+65
Medicine Use+40
Meditate+100
Melee Defense+87
Ranged Defense+65
Terrain Negotiation+20
Two-handed Melee Accuracy+135
Two-handed Melee Center of being+36
Two-handed melee Center of being efficacy+120
Two-handed Melee Speed+80
Two-handed Melee Toughness+48
Unarmed Accuracy+210
Unarmed Damage+245
Unarmed Speed+120
Unarmed Toughness+62

Not the biggest defense with this template but afaik doing strictly pve this is not needed....With +62 on toughness, wearing +80% armor and poping one synthisteak for 43% damage reduce u can tank the hell....Havin some Terrain Negotiation is just sweet...i miss it a lot while hunting ns on dath....i will switch my template the next days and go for this one....overall it has a good balance between offense/dealing damage and healing ablities to stand on your feets....

Mastered Professions so far: * Brawler *TKA * Fencer * Swordsman * Pikeman * Marksman * Rifleman * Scout * Creature Handler * Medic

There's a few things missing from each of those templates. And that is reliable status effects. Unarmed Stun and blind don't coun't, they don't really stick much anyways. Besides DoT's, I've discovered that status effects are how to win melee battles. If you can stick the stun/intimidate to lower their defenses, and then stick a blind, you are good to go. For PvP, I would say do some modifiying to template number 3, but doctor is invaluble in PvE.

What would you change up to achieve reliable status effects Vieki? From the looks of your template I'm guessing fencer specials?

To be truthful, I've never played around with fencer but climbing the 1h branch of Brawler when I mastered that wasn't too bad.

Dinian :: Master Swordsman - Teräs Käsi Master - Force Adept
Retired producer of fine weapons for Kong Technologies

Epowo BiPiCa
Master Swordsman
Goon Squad

Great thread guys. I do not normally reply to these but this one is so well done that I can not stay back and give my two cents

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First off, Ihave to saythat it mainly depends on one thing:

"Do you solo, or group kill?"

This questions is really important as it will affect your template a whole lot.

Scenario 1: Solo

If you solo, you need the ability to heal yourself. No matter how many defence vs. and range/melee defenceyou have ... eventually you will get hit. And if they critical hit you it will hurt. Which leaves me with two things in mind. Either hit the creature without being seen (rifleman) or dable in healing. A pepular choice here is have Master Doctor or Medic 2-0-4-0 (a good choice i my opinion)

Scenario 2: Group

Well this one depends on what your group is ... a stupid example would be if your four friends are pikeman. In this case .. dont event thing on being a swordsman cause you will outdamage them probably More ceriously, I see three possible solution here:

- Solution 1:If no one in your group of friends have invested two much in the healing... being a master doctor for buffs, healing and rez'esis a GREAT thing to have.

- Solution 2: If you have lots of people in your group that are rifleman ... try to be a melee tanker and invest in a combination tk and fencer.

- Solution 3: If you have mainly people that ditch out damage up close ... go for rifleman.

My two cents:

I am mostly a solo player and I have the famous (Master Swordsman, Teras Kasi 4-0-0-4, Master Rifleman, Medic 1-0-0-0). In my opinion this is a really really nice one for both PVE and PVP as well as give you the ability to be usefull in both solo and group play. The only issue with this one is the lack of healing ... but rifleman and conceal shot makes up for it. Why you say ?? Cause if you conceal shot a nightsister (ok it does take forever to kill) but you wont even have to heal yourself once.

PS Sorry about the tripple post ... this is the good one !!