Swordsman Archive

Hey all,
I know there’s quite a few of these threads, but please bear with me as I post my experience on a first elder hunt as I look for personal feedback after last night.

First off, my current template is:
Swordsman 4-4-4-4
Brawler 4-4-4-4
TKA 4-3-0-4
Fencer 0-4-0-0
Medic 2-1-4-0

I’ve recently mastered Swordsman and I’m speed capped through FS melee speed and a +3 attachment. I set out with armor consisting of 80% resists to blast, kinetic & electric. I threw on a +18 bleed defence sash and threw down some 23% bleed resist blood chowder along with the usual doctor and entertainer buffs plus brandy & aircake.

I made my way to the Forced Labour Camp, and pulled my first Elder (woohoo!). I had intimidate2 stuck on her the whole time, with stacked bleeds, spamming HeadHit3 and had CoB loop macro running. She was wielding a LVA and the combat window was showing hits of 380-480’ish, I had floaties above my head of around 100. I was quite surprised how quickly my HAM was going down tbh, I don’t think I would have survived without my Stim-E’s and I must have used around 11-12 stim uses in that one fight. I took another Elder down before going to bed, and the experience was identical as she also wielded a LVA.

First Elder had around 380K mind and took about 10 mins, second Elder around 320K mind and took about 8 mins, this was with a 629 max dmg PH. I walked away with around 5K reduction to my armor chestplate and boots, 550’ish BF and average wounds.

I’m wondering if this is kinda what you Elder vets are used to experiencing?

I was most alarmed by the rate of drop in my HAM and the armor decay. I used to fight spellweavers and protectors as TKA/Fencer and I rarely even needed to heal with Stim-B’s let alone Stim-E’s. I imagine this is due mainly to the strength of the Elder compared to the other NS, and also less toughness and melee defence compared to my old template. But it would be reassuring if others could confirm this experience for me.

Thanks for your time everyone, and look forward to your views!

P.S. First Elder dropped standard NS Shards, the second one a clear Crystal

Hiya First off well done! Basically, yes this is prettymuch standard - the only way to reduce the armour dmg/BF you recieve is to kill faster - higher dmg Powerhammer is the way to go seeing as you're speedcapped, a nice Acklay one with 700-800 dmg would allow you to take her down lots faster. The main difference between Spellweavers/Protectors and Elders is.. Elders will hit you no matter what your melee defence mod, or your counterattack mod.. their accuracy is so high it seems to completely bypass both primary and secondary defence mods. With Weavers and Protectors some of their attacks will still miss, or you will counterattack them, reducing the damage you take and therefore BF/Armour decay will be less.

Also, an Elder weapon has somewhere in the region of 1700-2750 damage,so she's still going to hit you hard even when intimidated, especially when she performs the "Lightsaber" special attacks that she can do with her normal weapon - look for Wrath of K'un, Cascade of Hatred or Storm of Animosity in your combat log, these are the attacks that hit very very hard and also tag you with stun, dizzy, blind and the nasty triple-pool bleed.

Seems like you're doing everything right though, keep on bashing!

Thanks for the kind words Tenlos It’s reassuring to know everything is in check with what’s considered a normal Elder hunt. Thanks also for the info on Elders and accuracy, I did notice she seemed to land a hit every 2 seconds without me ever counterattacking at all! I can see now how that accounts for such a high increase in armor decay. I may be better off not taking aircake and keeping the stomach space for emergencies when I think about it.

Now that I’ve started hunting high end mobs I hope to start building a better bank balance from loot so I’ll definitely keep an eye on the trade forums for some nice Acklay PH’s floating around! I like the sound of a 700-800 max dmg hammer That would also come in handy at Lord Nyaxs place, went there for the first time last night before my buffs run out and there were another 3 swordsmen there camping on the ramp, not long after I got there Nyax spawned near them and there was just an echo of PH’s slamming and he went down in a matter of seconds! lol! Looks like there’s some serious competition down there!

Was just thinking, going back to the Elder, I’ve read in the past about stacking intimidate1 with intimidate2 for greater damage reduction, but whenever I’ve tried stacking them it hasn’t really made that much of a difference from what I could tell. Does anyone have a definite answer on whether this works or not? My feeling is it doesn’t appear to stack.

Well, thanks again for your input Tenlos! Looking forward to some more Elder bashing later this evening!

Oo.. Sorry, I meant *max* dmg of 700-800.. WishI wasn't ill and fuzzy-headed, my apologies Food/Drink wise Brandy obviously, and ahrisa for mindcost/Canape for regen - If you don't have to worry about mindcost (Ent Buffs or a species that can have huge Will/Focus) Use the stomach space for damage reduction foods - Synthsteak etc.. Do you get stuck with bleeds much with the bleed def clothing you mentioned?

*Edit* Forgot to mention Intimidate, as far as I'm aware Intim1 and Intim2 have the same dmg reduction effect, but Intim2 lasts longer, and can be stacked for an even greater duration.. I just pop it on every 10-15 seconds to make sure it stays on her.

I have a question MY alt Is a Master Doc Master Swordsman and I havent tried to kill an elder yet but i was gonna give it a try and was wonderingwhat the strategy behind it was with out all the defense mods of the defense stacker template?

Pain is temporary, Pride is forever.

lol. elder + stunbaton + choke = dead

heheheh I (heart) Stun baton Elders

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heh...wait till you get one that pulls out a Stun Baton...Even in 39% stun armor...it stings....