Swordsman Archive

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Sundracon wrote:

if you're going for PvE then swordsman is great. but defense stacking the living hell out of a rifleman is even better. A T21's AP3 is godly.

as long as you aren't going after elders or giant canyon krayts Master Swordsman, Master Brawler, Master Rifleman is great for PvE.

Intimadate2, warcry2 and 2handlunge 2 rule. if you use them in that order you can KD a giant canyon krayt dragon or aNS elderfor almost 20 seconds

have fun

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Yeah, I thought about mastering brawler, but I just don't see myself getting rid of meditation 4 in tka. Curing disease, bleeds, poison and wounds is a HUGE timesaver. Powerboost doesn't suck and force of will is a lifesaver every hour I play. I think I'd keep med 4 if I were going tailor.

Warcry 2 is the only thing I'd be really excited about in brawler. But sony just announced that release 7 will nerf the aoe of warcry 1 and 2. Also, the chances of getting a kd on a krayt is about 1 in 12. Maybe a little less. Just yesterday we were hunting krayts and my friend who is a master tka/brawler did nothing but hit kd/war2 and it happened but not often. We usually get the sweet kd followed by a long warcry once, sometimes twice against each krayt. A nice bonus but it isn't a staple in our strategy and one I wouldn't bank on.

How do you guys feel about swordsman as a tank in these situations? And do you always go for the brain or do you use two-hand hit three or whatever for the best dps?

Thanks for your responses.

Well, Im going for it. 4004 in tka means i can grind it back in no time if I hate it which I am sure I wont.

haha if you like getting a smallkick in the nutsevery patch for the "betterment" of the game as a whole...by all means come on over!

It's really not that bad still...hopefully they throw us a bone in the patches to come. But we can still pound stuff pretty good.

I just mastered swordsman last night. Easy grind. I'm running the full gauntlet today.

I'm starting with the Aakuan cave. I'm certain I will blow through it with ease, but since it is something I have soloed 100 times as a TKA, it will give me great perspective.

Next I'm clearing out the Nightsister forced labor camp followed by the Nightsister Stronghold. I used to solo protectors. It was a risk, as my chances of getting nailed by force dibilitation was high. Force dibilitation can take your mind (or any other stat) down from 2000 to 500 and followed by a lucky shot through the helmet and it's astalabyebye. If I have a really hard time with spellweavers I will be unpleased. As a TKA I can take them with no buffs or armor, but then again we are banking on force powers not being too much of a factor in that situation. Buffed with armor, all day, 3 at a time.

Within 3 hours of server reboot I will be going krayt hunting with a small team. I will be the tank while my commandos, riflemen and BH's blast away. I seriously doubt I'll have any problems.

One mini test I did just before I mastered was the Mokk Tribe Camp. I was 3444 in sword and took 9 mokks at the same time with ease. That was incredibly encouraging as I don't think I could pull off getting swarmed by those nasty little evil Fred Flinstone dudes as a MTKA. 4344 would have been even better. However, this isn't my typical kind of hunting. I like the single large target than can drop something more than a stone knife.

I already miss the dizzy/kd, but let's face it, anything that can be knocked down consistently isn't worth fighting to me or is easy enough to take in massive groups that KD is a waste of time (like dark troopers).

What interests me, and I dont want to add insult to injury by going to their forum, is that nobody is a pikeman. Look at their skill tree. Area KD, area dizzy, good defensive mods and excellent damage. They must be incredibly slow and inacurrate. Wait, that's us too.

Head hit 3 is SICK. Part of my test today will be to see the difference in how quickly I can take something hitting it with 2h3 and 2hheadhit3. When I shoot my rifle using strafe2, I find that 70% of the shots hit health and I rarely hit mind. If I lay into something with 20K ham I WILL be taking down their health first. Tjhat didnt seem to be the case in leveling sword. The damage was perfectly even. Thousands of creatures dont lie. It's amazing what they don't tell us. 3 weeks ago, mind shot 1, mind shot 2, then working the brain shots in sword would have been a no brainer. Now it's all about straight up dps without dots. Stupid move. They wouldnt have to nerf everything if creatures and npc's werent such morons.

And you guys don't have any states. Who the heck is your correspondant anyway? What do we have like 7 specials, 3 of which are worth using? I'm just visiting, so I'm not going on a crusade, but you guys should be fighting for some skill boxes that arent completely empty.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying sword already. My Scythe will be done soon and when I get my hands on some +10 or better swordsman tapes and AA's I'll be at the top of the food chain. I plan to stay a swordsman until June 12th, at which time I will be dropping it for some undead spellcasting.

I'll report back tonight or tomorrow.

Mind hit is nice, and when solo this is the special of choice. Unfortunately when grouped we usually have to switch to hit3.

What interests me, and I dont want to add insult to injury by going to their forum, is that nobody is a pikeman. Look at their skill tree. Area KD, area dizzy, good defensive mods and excellent damage. They must be incredibly slow and inacurrate. Wait, that's us too.

You answered your question in the paragraph above. No high-end content is really dizzy'able nor will it KD often. I've spammed upwards of 100 dizzies on some content and not had a success. Right now Master Pikemen are actually more accurate than a HSM with a Power Hammer. Actually the pikeman difficulties, imo, come more from having nothing good rather than really being bad. Block sucks (it only blocks half damage and doesn't block states), their hit3 damage is low and their weapons aren't that great. Also they have a very low toughness. Also, what use is AE KD when KD's don't stack and even break prior KD's? Pikes are plagued with all sorts of small issues like that, that make them hard to justify.

And you guys don't have any states. Who the heck is your correspondant anyway? What do we have like 7 specials, 3 of which are worth using? I'm just visiting, so I'm not going on a crusade, but you guys should be fighting for some skill boxes that arent completely empty.

Yep, well we have been fighting this for quite some time. It's been a top-5 issue and something that Gorecki pushed before and I'm pushing now. Right now though we're really stuck while we wait on the combat rebalance. If I got a chance to try push for some changes beforehand I'd jump on it, but most such requests right now are just being given the same answer: the combat rebalance. I think that the devs are aware of what we want, and have some good ideas, and I think we're just stuck crossing our fingers, cringing at changes that may help may hurt more than help in the short term, and hoping that the final product is something we can work with.

StGabe.

Message Edited by haun on 02-23-2004 07:11 AM

I have Master Rifleman, Master Swordsman, Master Brawler, and I am quite satisifed with that combo.

It is great to be able to drill something's mind from distance and, if it gets in on you, to switch over to Sword and continue pounding away on its mind. Conversely, it is great to turn its head into mush with the powerhammer, and if it comes to its senses and tries to run, to be ableswitch to rifle and finish it off as it tries.

I got Dizzy/KDed by a TK in a base once while using my PH. Everytime I got up, I would whack him in the head with the hammer before I fell down again. Between that, the fact that he was not doing a lot of damage to me, and other people taking shots at him, he decided to run. By then, it had been about 30 seconds since the KD, so the Dizzy wore off, and I got up, jogged outside, and Headshot maybe two more times and DBed him with Snipershot.

The combination is definitely more geared towards offense than defense, but I am not looking to give it up anytime in the foreseeable future.

Well I finished my tour.

The Akuans were, as expected, a walkover. Swordsman is definitely superior in these situations against swarming mid level npc's.

The nightsisters were another story. I actually died in the stronghold against 1 spellweaver and 2 rancor tamers. Granted, I'm still learning the trade, but I do have to be much more careful while I used to throw caution to the wind in these situations. I rebuffed and cleared the place out. I isolated with my rifle and bahsed them with the hammer for the last 25% of their lives.

I think the difference is the melee toughness and dps. I forget the numbers, but unarmed melee toughness at mtka is much higher than 2 hand melee toughness at master sword. This is damage reduction and I was taking 200 damage hits all the time with a sword in my hand while the hits were typically less than 100 as a TKA. Im interested to see the difference in damage with the scythe, but the dps with a hammer means im taking more damage as it takes much longer to kill something in comparison to the way overpowered TKA.

Krayts were tankable, but I was with a small group (including 2 tka's) and I never got a chance to solo one. I doubt I could do it without master brawler.

I considered going master brawler, but that would mean giving up meditation 4. Ouch.

I'm not trying to tell you guys that sword sucks, I do actually like it very much. I also don't think that I'm providing any game breaking news by a longshot.

I look forward to working the Genosian cave over. On TC it's a nice challenge and a good mix. Unfortuantely, it will be the most camped cave in the game. Thanks SOE for your endless content.....NOT.

Thanks for all your input. Im sure once I pick up a few +10 sword tapes and refine my talentsI'll be singing another tune.