Swordsman Archive

I am a master heavy sword/doctor. I really have no real complaints about the profession (other than the fact that area attack 3 says it blinds and never blinds.) I would like to hear about other people's experiences in fighting Teras Kasi Masters, however.

My first duel was this situation: Just a random for fun duel in a starport. I am doc so my stats are geared to be buffe,d but I was unbuffed and unarmored. He unarmed KD 2'd me, I tried to get up twice (yes I know the proper way to try and get up from unarmed KD 2) and by that time I was incapped.

My second was a similar situation, except I had some substandard buffs and only my low ham padded (27-29% protections) on. I fought a guy who was not full TKM, but had unarmed KD 2 plus power hammer head hit 3s. He used unarmed KD 2 as his first attack, then scalp slams. I tried to get up many many times, never got back to my feet, never even hit the guy.

After that experience I hollered at a TKMto help me test some things. I upgraded to my full buff Ds and put on some kinetic layered(1 layer)composite. Here is largely what I found. If he uses unarmed kd 2, pretty much I lose. 50% of the time I never get back to my feet. 45% of the time I get back to my feet, but hes already wailed on me so much I'm not in any shape to do anything but bleed and kite him (which doesn't work as well anymore, but is still very effective). 5% of the time I get lucky, it lets me stand up on the 3rd or 4th try, then we rumble and its about a 50-50 fight. If he restricts himself to only unarmed Kd 1 (no dizzy), I can obviously get back up easy and it is50-50,maybe even a 60-40 edge in my favor.

Has anyone found good tactics to not fall prey to this attack? I hate to advocate a nerf or complain that something is overpowered but lets think about this for a second. With one attack, one single attack, a teras kasi master can pretty much insure that he wins 95% of his duels vs a melee character. (We tried it against a pikeman and a fencer with very similar results.

Now lets think about how the teras kasi tree compares to the swordsman tree. We have our four columns and mastery. We get good defenses at master so it is well worth going all the way up. All four of our columns are combat bonuses and special combat attacks. Now lets examine teras kasi, again they get a good attack at master and bonuses that are well worth getting, so it is worth spending the sps to master. But the columns is where things differ. 3 of 4 teras kasi columns you get combat bonuses and special combat attacks. Yet they have this fourth column called meditate. Meditate column gives some really nice special abilities. MEditate itself. Those limited TK buffs (sorry dont know the name of the skill). Plus the ability to try and force yourself back to standing after you've been incapped. (Yes I know if you fail it mauls you).

Like I said, I dont want to advocate a nerf. Does this seem fair to you however? I would like to say I have no problems with TK being equal to us and it being a fair fight, despite them being a 3/4 combat profession with 1/4 special abilities. But it isn't really a "fair" fight. With that one attack they can kd us and potentially we never get up again. Yes, I am well aware how hard it is to get unarmed exps, but heavy sword exps isn't exactly cake either.

I'm getting long winded, and I can't recall the other points I wanted to make. Like I said, people who are TK don't jump all over me I'm not calling for a nerf. What I would like is other heavy swords to share their experiences fighting TKs. Is there some strategy that works well against the KD2, some way for us to counter it? Center of being seems to only really work well against ranged attacks, and I feel like a sissy using bleed and kiting them all the time. If there is not a strategy that can defeat this TK attack, then what should we do about it?

Remove the Dizzy from KD2, that way i dont fall backdown from it.

remove the who? from the what? How do you do that? is taht a doc thing? Hmm...

Spam stand+bleed/headhit3.

Mind hit 2, Mind hit 1, war cry, run away.

You are all wrong. There is basically no real way to beat a tka flawlessly. You have to use center of being and hope you counter his kd, Thats basically all you can do. I'm Master brawler and master sword. Ive had alot better luck with tkas recently but still i will win 1 out of 3 times. Its all down on luck. Their kd is too good. A stand alone swordsman will NEVER win against a tka consecutively if at all. Your only hope is to take up defence lines from each of the other elite melee classes for the melee and kd defence mods. Swordsman really get the lowest of these mods out of all the elite mellee professions. We really need to be upped in those areas.

Beating a TKM is basically total luck. Either that, or the TKM has absolutely no idea what the heck he's doing.

Its not imposible at all, but we need some luck....

With the Lunge 2, i won a Tka, I knocked down him before he did it to me..... head hit 3 with the hammer and....bye TKa. The secret of Pvp is the KD, if you KD your enemy....the end is near.

Master Brawler / Novice Heavy Swordsman 3-4-3-3 / Ch /

well this is what i did to beat the mtka well i got the balance line in tka to get the kd. and that's what i started out as. i kd'ed him switched to the ph two-handedhit two he got dizzy i was like hell yeah and i beat down on him like he would have done to me. but i was really surprised that my dizzy actually landed but still it was awsome. and i tried this tactic again and it worked again. and the guy was like Gah again. but of course this was all luck. i mean it is realy hard to kd a mtka. but not for me any more yay.

TK KN2 is Ownage, i dueld a Bunch of differentTK today....

There isn't realy a way to counter i unless you can knock them down first....

My best result today was Warcry at the begining of the duel folowed by Mind hit 2, then he ran away and /firstaid my bleed on the first try (**edit** was up with that?)...Then came back with a lunge 2.

In No Knockdown or Warcry Duels its Closer to even....although i do get the impression their PvP damage output Is higher then mine (Due to hitting withspecialsalmost twice a second)...But its close

I Don't Realy have a problem with them having a Kickass move here and there. Its actualy Realy cool to watch But i don't realy like the Huge gap in balance between TKS vs WeaponsMelee...Fencer is the closest now, only because of their realy nice Mods....I would Just be happy if the Devs Clearly defined a Certain Aspect of melee Combat to us (My Guess is it would be the offensive melee class, With pike being the Defense, Fencer the middle ground between O and D, and TKS the Utility Melee) But as it stand now all the other Melee's are so under developed in comparison to TKS that it make them the Winners in EVERY catagory...and it shouldn't be that way

The PvP spec im working on is

400/400/400/400/400/400/1100/950/950 stats

0/4/4/0 Doctor - 0/0/0/4 TKA - Master Swordsman

Ill be buffed all the time and the TKA is for +60 melee def, add that to the +20sh from Swordsman = +80 meleedefense, +100 Counterattack

Fencer line gives more melee/range defense and you get dizzy special.

The biggest strength of a TKA is the ability to do specials without knucklers, you get all the effect with no HAM usage. they do not hit harder than us, we drain ourselves more per hit. That is the problem. If they use their knucklers or not, we still use more HAM. Also, when my kd def was 105, I still lost from time to time. PVP at the highest level is all aboutm delays, kd, and a huge protion of luck either way. We can dizzy kd with AA3 and lunge 2. You just have to counter attack till the cows come home, which we do really well. But in the end, it is a whole ot of luck on their and our part.