Swordsman Archive

I have a question for the experienced swordsman out there. My question is, is it really necessary to train as a swordsman? That is, if I train up to a 2H sword specialist, how effective will I be with the 2H weapons?

I'm currently playing a rifleman/swordsman, however I find that I really don't use the 2H sword very much. Typically, 2-3 shots from the rifle leaves the mob very close to death, and once they charge me I'll pull out the axe to land the deathblow (I am too lazy to use threatenshot, and I hate kiting). Every so often, I'll get jumped by multiple mobs, and I'll use the 2H sword then to defend myself. So I'm thinking instead to stop training 2H sword once I hit specialist, then using my points towards another profession.

Right now I'm at expert level in 2H swords and rifle, and spend a lot of time hunting rock/mound mites and womp rats.Will specialist level be enough for the higher level mobs?

"2-3 rifle shots will bring a mob to near death" What are the cons of these mobs? As an Apprentice Heavy Swordsman, I can kill a dark blue mob in one good hit and a white in 2-3.

I think you should focus on whichever you like best, because as your grinding towards master you'll need tons of combat xp and you won't want to have to split it up between two different weapon categories.

Specialist Two-handed Weapons gives you an area-of-attack abitilty that helps bail you out when your surrounded (destroy missions anyone?) so it could help you out if you choose to use it.

Duo

Aspiring Swordman

Bria

I'm fighting white con mobs with the occasional yellow mob. Against blue mobs, I can one hit them with either the rifle or the axe. On the rare occasion that I fight a white mob purely with the axe, it takes 3-4 hits using the mind attack. Splitting the xp isn't too bad right now, since if the mob survives 2 shots and charges me, it will have only a sliver of mind pool left. A 300 xp mob will usually split xp into 275 rifle xp, 25 2 hand xp.

XP in this game is such a grind, I don't think that I could limit myself to one weapon. Switching back and forth between melee and range breaks up the tedium a bit. Also, since rifle and 2 Hand complement each other so well, it lets me take on tougher mobs with less risk. Yellow mobs really aren't that dangerous, if they are alone. Red mobs are doable as well, although the reward isn't really worth the downtime.

As for the area attack move, how many area attack hits will it take to kill a blue mob? How bad are the HAM costs? I'm wondering if using the 2 Hand area attack to mow down large groups of blues would be an effective xp strategy.

sound like your asking if your strong enough to kill everything in the game... if your at expert right now... thats only level 9... once you start seeing mobs in the 12-15 range... you might want to get into a group.

First, grouping is a totally separate issue. I don't really care about my effectiveness in a group and what I can kill in a group, as its basically just a free for all spamming whatever attack I feel like spamming. Unfortunately group strategy in this game is lacking.

Second, I am not asking if I can kill everything in the game. I'm asking whether the effectiveness of the swordsman skills, such as area attack, are significantly better than a 2H sword specialist. I was hoping that someone here could give me some reasons to go full swordsman (or not). Right now, other than the area attack Duo mentioned, I don't see much of a benefit from going beyond specialist level in swordsman.

Lastly, how exactly are you determining "level?" I haven't seen/heard anyone refer to levels in this game before, so I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing or if you're just guesstimating the levels on your own.

The effectiveness of the swordsman is greatly increased by going to the swordsman profession. You remember the difference between headshot1 and headshot2. Well at the first level of Swordsman you get 2 handed hit 2. Not to metion your area of affect attacks get posture down abailies. You get headhit2 and then 3. Yes the effectiveness goes up greatly. Not to mention you will get alot more defense when holding a 2 handed sword through two handed toughness. I would at least go to novice two handed swordsman, because of the nice stat. attributes it gives you when you get to novice.

hatchet