Swords or Fencing??

[Hyder]

Just finish my poisoner, going to to roll up a dexxer to mainly fight mages.. I had heard that Fencing sucked right about this time period, but I see lots of guys rolling with spears. What do you think is a better way to go SWORDS or FENCING? Seems you have more options with fencing warfork, kriss, spear, short spear, as if you go swords, katana seem the only useable choice cuz hally would be too slow to fight a mage or other dexxer. that is just my guess, any thoughts??

thanks,

Still looking for a guild if anyone will let me in...

[George_Costanza]

I never play anything beyond a tank mage so for that reason I always stick to swords.

I've seen several dex monkeys with fencing however, and they seem to get off at least 1 swing per second. I don't know if fencing is at a disadvantage for this time era, but if it is, it hasn't stopped several others from effectively utilizing it.

Don't know if thats much help.

[Red]

Hallies are good in the hands of a dexer if you take advantage of the big instahit. Pretty much anytime you haven't connected in the time it takes to swing a hally, switch to it for the big hit and follow up with a katana.

War forks are insane, they do a lot of damage consistently.
Kryss has a wide range of damage, so you can hit for 1 hp and then 30.
Spears are probably garbage unless they are like power/vanq. I don't know.

[Finesse]

im not sure whats correct here but on osi in this era

fencing was better than swords for a dexer as a kryss was about 0.1 faster than a katana but had its highest damage lower by 1 but ofc as well all know DP dexers want speed not damage the dp is a massive damage increase.

also swords has more weps not fencing.

[Hyder]

I understand that swords has more, but I only ever see people using a hally or katana, I never see anyone using anything else in a PVP fight. I would think that fencing would be better. Has anyone on the shard used both? Would like your imput as it pertains to this shard. I read somewhere that fencing was kinda gimp on this shard. was looking for someone who has used both here...

Thanks again,,

[Daolin]

mace weapons

[Finesse]

im not sure how any weps are on this shard yet

but pre ren i used broadsword katana and hally on my mages that was you got a better range of speeds and broadswords hit massive sometimes

how is macing here anyway?

[Hyder]

Macing is good, but I figured since I just GMed poisoning.. I wanted to roll something that could use poison.

[MatronDeWinter]

Fencing with the Kryss is faster, use it if you are poisoning. If you are fighting a mage do not overlook the power of a good GM quality dagger. This will totally mess people up. The dagger is so fast (only rivaled by the Cleaver(swords), can be deadly poisoned, and the damage isnt that bad. You will interupt spells all day with a dagger. It is a great weapon to disrupt a mage while you wait for the poisoning blow and then switch to something more suitable like a spear. The spear does not deal quite as much damage it's swords counterpart the hally, but it is significantly faster. If your going straight dexer I would chose fencing, but if you plan to use magery, and have low dex I would use the hally for insta-hit capability. All the weapons can do the insta-hit though, and since this shard is pre special-moves (the random ones, not the selectable BS) it doesnt make too much of a difference, most of the weapons skills are about even for different purposes.

Fencing vs Mages and monsters
Macing vs Warriors and monsters
Swords is the average.

If it were super mario 2, fencing would be Princess, Macing would be Toad, and Swords would be Mario!

Once the special moves thing came into play things got a whole lot different. You could randomly either paralyse(fence), concussion (swords, it removes max mana) or whatever the mace one was that did more damage and broke armor.

When this happened people started to use fencing with tank mages because the use of a spear can cause havoc with no mana use until the paralysis struck, then you could use a combo and kill your victim. Swords was great while versing these fencing paralysers because you could cut their mana in half and they could not finish a good combo to kill you off so easily. Not to mention they would have to struggle to heal themselves (so many started using bandaids). Macing well, breaking armor is cool, and the damage is good, but fery few really stuck with that one. There may be some great macing strategy, is someone else wants to chime in.

If your not poisoning, keep archery in mind. A Mage/Archer can devistate people from a distance. Insta-hit applies to the super-powerful heavy crossbow too!

[Mighty Atom]

Hi,

I'm am planning to make a dexer so I have done abit of research on the different weapons classes. Like you, I want to poison so I wanted to decide between swords or fencing for my primary combat skill. Looking at the combat guide that can be accessed on the guide section of uosecondage.com I have pulled out some numbers for you. The first set of numbers is the delay between each swing at 100 stamina, the second is the base dmg of the weapon, and the third is the total damage dealt over 1 minute by a weapon against 0 AR assuming each swing hits at 50 dex.

spear 1.63 2-36 629
warfork 1.67 4-32 583
kryss 1.42 3-28 591
dagger 1.36 3-15 356
halberd 3.00 5-49 486
katana 1.29 5-26 647

Just to point out, at lower stamina the differences between the delays are increased, they do not increase uniformly.

From these numbers you can see the the katana is superior over time followed closely by the spear. After seeing this I decided to take fencing for the spear because you cant assume in PvP that your opponent is going to stand still and let you whack him with a katana non-stop. PvP is highly dynamic so it is not likely that within 1.3 seconds your opponent lets you sit next to him swinging your katana for the second time, but you actually have to chase them around to get your swings in. This would mean that you most likely wont hit your target every 1.3 seconds and the advantage of the katana over the spear is lost. It is my guess* that you will end up hitting your opponent the roughly same amount of times with a spear, which is only 0.34 seconds slower, as you would a katana because he wont let you hit him that often. Therefore, if you are hitting just as often with a spear as you are with a katana the spear has a clear advantage as it does greater damage.

*This is a guess because I have not made my dexer yet, and I have not tested this.

A disadvantage of the spear is that you have unequip it to takes pots.

Now Swords has another clear advantage, which is the halberd. This does huge damage and to be able to swing it every 3 seconds could be devastating. If I were to pick just one combat skill it would be Swords because it has great diversity in the katana which does the greatest damage over time, and the halberd which does the 2nd greatest damage in one hit. Ultimately, the reason I chose fencing over swords here is that I want to use archery as my secondary combat skill. The reason for using archery is to have the high damage, ranged attack of the heavy crossbow which inflicts an insane 11-56 base damage but has a painful 7.5 second delay at 100 stamina. This makes it the perfect 'finishing off' attack when your opponent is poisoned on 1/4 life and fleeing the battlefield. Archery is also good for the bow which has a delay of 3.25 seconds and gives you the ability to inflict damage to your opponent the instant the battle is initiated.

Therefore it is my opinion that alone Swords is the superior combat skill allowing the use of both the katana and the halberd and it is recommended if you only have one combat skill or as a secondary skill to mace fighting. However, I feel that the spear could be more effective in PvP, and that with archery as a secondary skill you have less need for the high damage halberd hit because of the even more devastating heavy cross bow.

I would love to hear the opinions of more seasoned dexers before I get too far in making this character. By the way his skills will be:

Fencing
Archery
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Resist
Magery

havn't yet decided on the stats but i'm thinking:
97 str
95 dex
33 int (for 3 lvl 4 spells ie. gheal, gheal, recall)

Cheers

[cletus]

Hi,

I'm am planning to make a dexer so I have done abit of research on the different weapons classes. Like you, I want to poison so I wanted to decide between swords or fencing for my primary combat skill. Looking at the combat guide that can be accessed on the guide section of uosecondage.com I have pulled out some numbers for you. The first set of numbers is the delay between each swing at 100 stamina, the second is the base dmg of the weapon, and the third is the total damage dealt over 1 minute by a weapon against 0 AR assuming each swing hits at 50 dex.

spear 1.63 2-36 629
warfork 1.67 4-32 583
kryss 1.42 3-28 591
dagger 1.36 3-15 356
halberd 3.00 5-49 486
katana 1.29 5-26 647

Just to point out, at lower stamina the differences between the delays are increased, they do not increase uniformly.

From these numbers you can see the the katana is superior over time followed closely by the spear. After seeing this I decided to take fencing for the spear because you cant assume in PvP that your opponent is going to stand still and let you whack him with a katana non-stop. PvP is highly dynamic so it is not likely that within 1.3 seconds your opponent lets you sit next to him swinging your katana for the second time, but you actually have to chase them around to get your swings in. This would mean that you most likely wont hit your target every 1.3 seconds and the advantage of the katana over the spear is lost. It is my guess* that you will end up hitting your opponent the roughly same amount of times with a spear, which is only 0.34 seconds slower, as you would a katana because he wont let you hit him that often. Therefore, if you are hitting just as often with a spear as you are with a katana the spear has a clear advantage as it does greater damage.

*This is a guess because I have not made my dexer yet, and I have not tested this.

A disadvantage of the spear is that you have unequip it to takes pots.

Now Swords has another clear advantage, which is the halberd. This does huge damage and to be able to swing it every 3 seconds could be devastating. If I were to pick just one combat skill it would be Swords because it has great diversity in the katana which does the greatest damage over time, and the halberd which does the 2nd greatest damage in one hit. Ultimately, the reason I chose fencing over swords here is that I want to use archery as my secondary combat skill. The reason for using archery is to have the high damage, ranged attack of the heavy crossbow which inflicts an insane 11-56 base damage but has a painful 7.5 second delay at 100 stamina. This makes it the perfect 'finishing off' attack when your opponent is poisoned on 1/4 life and fleeing the battlefield. Archery is also good for the bow which has a delay of 3.25 seconds and gives you the ability to inflict damage to your opponent the instant the battle is initiated.

Therefore it is my opinion that alone Swords is the superior combat skill allowing the use of both the katana and the halberd and it is recommended if you only have one combat skill or as a secondary skill to mace fighting. However, I feel that the spear could be more effective in PvP, and that with archery as a secondary skill you have less need for the high damage halberd hit because of the even more devastating heavy cross bow.

I would love to hear the opinions of more seasoned dexers before I get too far in making this character. By the way his skills will be:

Fencing
Archery
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Resist
Magery

havn't yet decided on the stats but i'm thinking:
97 str
95 dex
33 int (for 3 lvl 4 spells ie. gheal, gheal, recall)

Cheers

Hi, Interesting choice of skills. Since you have magery already you should consider dropping archery (not really all that useful except for the first shot and you could use a 2 handed weapon for that honestly.) You will not be able to hit a person running off your screen with a crossbow unless they are retardedly running in circles. You will have to chase that bastard down with explode pots and patience most likely.

Instead i'd suggest a Med Macer.
Healing
Anatomy
Macing
Tactics
Magery
Mediation
Resist

100 str (always)
92 dex (chug greater agilities and the difference wont be noticable)
33 int (2 gheals or 1 gheal one recall at 22 int when debuffed)

While some people consider macing the weakest melee skill, I happen to believe it is the best hands down. Stamina drain works WONDERS versus low dex mages and forces them to chug refreshes during the fight (they will run out) While a DP dexer can poison the mage over and over.. the mage can cast cure to negate it until they run out of reagents.. Not so with stamina drain. The tactic for this type of character is to debuff the mage you are fighting (especially their dex, 15 stamina versus a macer? haha) and then keep a harm precasted to keep them low. When used in combination with purple potions this character is in my opinion the best character for fighting mages.

What it can't do:
Fight parry dexers (why dexers would fight one another boggles my mind anyways)
Get the XBOXHUEG DMG like a halberd may give. However warhammers were quite strong on OSI.

However, if this doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy you could always drop archery and pick up poisoning. DP Dexers are quite brutal and while they stomp unprepared mages fairly hard they can also run a dexer out of much needed cure pots quite fast.

I'd personally pick swords over fencing but that is mostly personal preference.

[XaN]

Swords is quicker, fencing is dumb. Literally... I fight a guy using a katana vs my kryss and he gets me to 1/3 hp's before I hit him twice. ALL THE TIME. That's all you need to understand which is better.

[RoadKill]

Swords is quicker, fencing is dumb. Literally... I fight a guy using a katana vs my kryss and he gets me to 1/3 hp's before I hit him twice. ALL THE TIME. That's all you need to understand which is better.

That's a bad luck scenario.

If both of you had brand new weapons, and were both at 100 skill, you both have the same chance to hit each other.

[Faust]

There is a theory that I have come up with that suggests that a kryss is the same speed as a katana at high levels of stamina during the t2a era even though there speed is different on the t2a weapon table. The difference between the two would be slightly different if this was true. A kryss hits for a lower minimum but a higher maximum than a katana. A katana on the other hand hits for more centralized damage that is more consistant.

[Kraarug]

There is a theory that I have come up with that suggests that a kryss is the same speed as a katana at high levels of stamina during the t2a era even though there speed is different on the t2a weapon table. The difference between the two would be slightly different if this was true. A kryss hits for a lower minimum but a higher maximum than a katana. A katana on the other hand hits for more centralized damage that is more consistant.

I do not think the math of your theory works out.

Let me know where I may be wrong... but assuming that all things being equal except for the speed of the weapons and their damage ranges this should be true...

Weapon Speed Low DMG HI DMG AVG DMG Hits/Min Lo DMG Hi DMG AVE DMG
kryss 1.42 3.00 28.00 25.00 42.25 126.76 1183.10 654.93
katana 1.29 5.00 26.00 21.00 46.51 232.56 1209.30 720.93

Using general distribution and if one took the number of possible hits per min based on speed and the average between the lowest possible damage and highest possible damage the likely damage will be the result.

In this case, the Katana shows a nearly 70 point advantage over the kryss.

Taking into account the quote below and the advantage is hard to dispute.

Just to point out, at lower stamina the differences between the delays are increased, they do not increase uniformly.

The real question is, why does this math or even the weapon speed / damage tables often cited not jive with players memories?