Swordsman Archive

Hey guys, I have a BH and a Commando and now I want to try my hands at a melee class. I'm not really into the whole "Karate" thing of a TKA, and I've narrowed it down between the Pikeman or the Swordsman. I'm leaning a bit towards Swordsman since I see a Scythe weapon cert on there, which in the future may be completely badass, and I've heard Pikeman are mad broke. If Pikeman get fixed, how do you all feel the two will compare? Thanks in advance.

Pikeman are getting more broken, they're limiting minimum speed to 3 seconds from 1. The knockdown timer killed the effectiveness, and statistical analysis says that you will do more damage as a swordsman while taking less damage from HAM costs of weapons.

It's a horrible thing to say, but the only reason to be pikeman is that you like playing the game on the hard setting.

My medics have been complaining to me about killing myself, and I've got some pretty serious ham dmg reduction on my LVA. I've got it down to 52/60/eh something. Problem is the accuracy modifier sitting at -55.

So, I started working on two handed swords last night.

If they fix Pikeman, they'll be doing a great service to all ten of us that are left, but I don't see it happening. There have been mention of fixing the accuracy modifiers on the weapons, that's what needs to happen. I suggest that if you plan on playing for awhile, pick up 2H, and try pikeman after the pikemen think that pikeman is fixed.

btw, my tree in pikeman is at 2/3/1/2. I have enough combat xpfor another level in the support line, and enough polearm xp for another box in any other line. I'm not going to surrender any skills there until I'm out of skill points to use on heavy swordsman. I'm waiting, but to me, this is the better class, besides, a wookiee with a big giant hammer just sounds like a blast to me.

The best thing to do is just play the class you have the most fun with since you can bet that if one class is lacking players they will end up giving them something to attract people, it ALWAYS works that way. Then when they do fix the class or give it something good everyone scrambles to be in that profession, its funny.

Didnt they do that to Commandos?...dont play the game like what you see right now with your class is set in stone and its never going to change, it definately will change, this game is still really young. Look at all the ups and downs EQ went through (this class is the best, now that, now this one..they are always balancing them out). One could even say that being a class that has very few people in it could be an advantage, because not only are you unique but if someone is gonig to get some uber skill or upgrade down the line they have a good chance to receive it....Contrary to what some people think the developers are not stupid they know the Exact profession countbreakdown across all servers, and would strive to create a class equilibrium in the long term.

Pikeman is still king of ae attack in pvp. They hav a 75% chance to dizzy with their area attack, then all they gotta do is ae KD and spam area attack to kill mutilple ppl at once.

yes i ahve used a staff, in fact i am a martial artist myself ( i hold belts in 2 diffrent styles) and if somone gets in a staff's swing raidus it is next to useless. there are some techniques that counter this but your best bet is to force your opponet back into the range where your staff is most effective. a pike is longer then a staff and thus harder to use point plank (im talking nose to nose range here). the closer you get in somones swing raidus so they cannot effectivly swing there weapon the better your chance of surviving. ask any jujitsu student, they will say the same thing.

sorry, no edit button

staves and pikes if you look at history were deployed in a defencive type position. set to recieve a charge is where a polearm excells. what i mean by that is if somone runs into a set polearm there done for. take the halberd for example. arguably the most powerful polearm there was. it had a small axe head at the end of an 8 foot shaft. it also had a spike on the top of the shaft and on the oppisite side of the axe head. this weapon was great for punchuring armor. the downside to this weapon is that it was heavy and needed alot of room to be swung in an arc effectively.

staves can be used in close melee combat, perhaps i was bit hasty in that judgement, but lances, vibro lances and long vibro axes im sure are heavy weapons and should be treated as the halberd example above. whatever thease weapons hit should do massive damage.

well not totally Pikes and lances was used to dismount horses, but with a staff a person would be just as good in close combat as a swordsman even better even becouse if your using a English Broadsword vs a Metal staff or composite wood staff a staff would when becouse of the amount of control a staffer would have over the control of the swordsman. both are 2 handed but the placement of the hands give you a far greater degree of control over the weapon =)

and the Momentomis easyier to chain =)

it should go this way imho, (not counting TKA, there a bit diffrent then the weapon professions)

One handed sword - the fastest flashiest weapon weilder, like its profession the fencer should be pleasing to watch and very deadly focusing more on dodging and evasion techniques.

Two handed sword - while giving up the flashy style as his fencer brother, the two handed swordsman does of course more damage. also should have two handed toughnessmods because that big sword can be used rather well for defence.

Pikeman - this guy should be the most damaging melee around, however might also be the slowest and not the most accurate, lets face it pikes arnt that great for point plank combat. a bit cumbersome but if they get a hold of you OMG here comes the pain. and this weapon will be the most defencive of the three, having a big staff allows you to block very effectively.

have you ever used a staff.. i'm totally sure i'd take someone on in point blank combat. a pikemen to me should be a mix of both fencer and swordsman with alittle more range

I got to the top of the pike tree in Brawler, and then started over with 2H Sword. I am a Wookie and wanted a weapon to hit the mind pool, like my Bowcaster does. The only thing I miss from pike is the stun. Outside of that, I am doing way more damage with my sword. My 2H curved is just way better than my lance ever was. Unless I just got a bad lance. :> Still, I am happy with the change.

Damage of Swordsmen and Pikemen are about the same. Pikemen get knockdowns which have some marginal use, unlike Swordsmen and posture down-- If you're a swordsman you basically have to go Master Brawler. Pikemen get slightly less defense and toughness, but not that much less (I seriously doubt it makes a big difference and it will probably be changed anyway). Their weapons are more problematic early on, but in the end they come out about the same -30ish on Vibrolance same asPower Hammer.

In PvP, Pikemen with the Vibrolance will be able to do damage against even the most armored opponents due to electrical damage.

Basically don't listen to all of the whiners in the Pikeman forum, they are full of **edit**. I'm all 4 melee professions and I can tell you the Pikeman is not underpowered and does not miss noticeably more than a swordsman (the guys who claim they miss every other hit, or miss 9 times and die are either recountinga single string of bad luck or just flat out lying). Also Pikeman moves look MUCH more impressive than swordsman. Swordsmen really got the shaft in terms of animations.

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Graeme wrote:
I got to the top of the pike tree in Brawler, and then started over with 2H Sword. I am a Wookie and wanted a weapon to hit the mind pool, like my Bowcaster does. The only thing I miss from pike is the stun. Outside of that, I am doing way more damage with my sword. My 2H curved is just way better than my lance ever was. Unless I just got a bad lance. :> Still, I am happy with the change.

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Early sword weapons are better than Pikes (Curved Sword is better than Basic Lance), however once you hit the elite profession this is no longer the case.