Advice for a new sworder

[Dodger]

I wanted to make a new swordsman and wondered what a good template was, I was thinking;

tactics
Anat
parry
swords
bushido
chiv
resist


Any advice is appreciated.

 

[John II SRC]

My swordsman looks almost exactly the same, except that he has healing instead of bushido. But then, we are a guild of healers, so that's quite a requisit ...

I don't have any experience with Bushido, so no clue what it does and how helpful it might be. My swordsman is rather fine for fighting monsters. He takes WWs down in a few strikes and I count that as an achievement *grins*

 

[Kiminality]

Any advice is appreciated.

Hit them with the pointy end

 

[Barian]

 

[Dodger]

My swordsman looks almost exactly the same, except that he has healing instead of bushido. But then, we are a guild of healers, so that's quite a requisit ...

I don't have any experience with Bushido, so no clue what it does and how helpful it might be. My swordsman is rather fine for fighting monsters. He takes WWs down in a few strikes and I count that as an achievement *grins*

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking of dropping either anat or tactics to gain more than gm in the other skills, do you know which I should consider lowering?

 

[Kaj]

How will you heal?

Maybe throw in 40 necro (with midnight, jewelry, Ossian and a talisman you can hit 100 necro) and use VE?

 

[Tabby Kapak]

Apologies to "hi-jack" the thread but Kaj's comment prompts a question that has been on our mind for ages: Why is VE regarded as superior to Curse weapon leeching? Is it purely the partial poison immunity? VE leeches only 20%, Curse weapon 50% of the damage... we only use CW on our necro fencer so far, the 20% was too lil to be of use.
Apologies again, the question might be relevant tough.

Sorry Dodger, we have several swordsmen but none are very active so we can't give good advice...

And thanks for the smile Kimi!

 

[Kaj]

Apologies to "hi-jack" the thread but Kaj's comment prompts a question that has been on our mind for ages: Why is VE regarded as superior to Curse weapon leeching? Is it purely the partial poison immunity? VE leeches only 20%, Curse weapon 50% of the damage... we only use CW on our necro fencer so far, the 20% was too lil to be of use.
Apologies again, the question might be relevant tough.

Sorry Dodger, we have several swordsmen but none are very active so we can't give good advice...

And thanks for the smile Kimi!

Well, I personally love VE for PvM. I use a combo of minimal healing and necro. The poison resist is great.
The downside of curse weapon is that it's timed and needs Spirit Speak to last long (quote from the uo.com website: 30 seconds at GM, or about 36 seconds at Legendary Spirit Speak). VE is until death and doesn't require any casting (dragging around regs or matching LRC to a dexer suit can be hard) and just needs 40 necro with jewelry.
When I go to Doom with my enhanced ele/demon slaying bow I can hit the DF for 200-300 dmg and live through it easily.
The key with the 20% LL is that you do need to do a lot of damage, so I carry around 8 different types of bows.

 

[Tabby Kapak]

Thanks for the enormous fast reply Kaj!
Never realised it also works for archers, hehe. But that last line must be it, fencers will always have a hard time doing enough damage we guess.

We indeed dropped the LRC as it was a pain to get it right, and luckily CW only needs pig iron so a pile of those is enough. But casting again and again has an extra disadvantage in the karma loss to those who mind we guess. VE has only once karma loss we presume? (unless you die and need to recast...)

Thanks again for opening our eyes.

 

[John II SRC]

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking of dropping either anat or tactics to gain more than gm in the other skills, do you know which I should consider lowering?

Both influence the amount of damage you deal. When you have less than 50% tactics you actually loose points off your base damage. For every 10% tactics you have over 50% you deal 10% more damage. Anatomy influences your damage as well, but if I remember it correctly not as much as tactics. If you add healing to your char you do need anatomy though for that. Hmmm ... I would stick with as much anatomy as you can get and lower tactics only as little as possible. Maybe throw in some jewelry. This way you keep your options open for healing ...

 

[Kith Kanan]

Thanks for the enormous fast reply Kaj!
Never realised it also works for archers, hehe. But that last line must be it, fencers will always have a hard time doing enough damage we guess.

We indeed dropped the LRC as it was a pain to get it right, and luckily CW only needs pig iron so a pile of those is enough. But casting again and again has an extra disadvantage in the karma loss to those who mind we guess. VE has only once karma loss we presume? (unless you die and need to recast...)

Thanks again for opening our eyes.

carry some blessed arcane pieces , can be insured and that might come in handy

 

[Birdseye]

Dont even think at dropping Tactics to below 90, if you intend to do any PvP. Becuase you wont be able to do any specials. Even in PvM, specials can be crucial deciders in bringing down the brutes. Bleed, and armour ignores have slain many a beast on my blues.

Personally, i don't see the point in magic resist, and i would go for healing instead. With healing for healing/cures, chiv for remove curse/healing/cure, and Bushido for Confidence (IMO the most under rated actions in the game), you gonna have a hard time dying (especially if you can use pots as well).

So my template would be (based on 720 skills points)
Swords 120
Parry 120
Anatomy 100
Bushido 100 (get the Hiyru)(but remember to use a 2 handed weapon or your parry is nerfed)
Tactics 90 (just for the specials)
Chiv 80 (don't see point of wasting extra for very little reward)
Healing 70 (use enhanced bandies)
Necro 40 (as previously stated VE)

If you could get a 70's suit and good HCI/DCI jewels with a bit of FC/FCR your set for anything. All you gotta remember is kill plenty of red Mage lords in shame every now and again to keep your Karma back up.

Actually, you've made me wanna go out and make a new character now! You bugger!

 

[Dodger]

Dont even think at dropping Tactics to below 90, if you intend to do any PvP. Becuase you wont be able to do any specials. Even in PvM, specials can be crucial deciders in bringing down the brutes. Bleed, and armour ignores have slain many a beast on my blues.

Personally, i don't see the point in magic resist, and i would go for healing instead. With healing for healing/cures, chiv for remove curse/healing/cure, and Bushido for Confidence (IMO the most under rated actions in the game), you gonna have a hard time dying (especially if you can use pots as well).

So my template would be (based on 720 skills points)
Swords 120
Parry 120
Anatomy 100
Bushido 100 (get the Hiyru)(but remember to use a 2 handed weapon or your parry is nerfed)
Tactics 90 (just for the specials)
Chiv 80 (don't see point of wasting extra for very little reward)
Healing 70 (use enhanced bandies)
Necro 40 (as previously stated VE)

If you could get a 70's suit and good HCI/DCI jewels with a bit of FC/FCR your set for anything. All you gotta remember is kill plenty of red Mage lords in shame every now and again to keep your Karma back up.

Actually, you've made me wanna go out and make a new character now! You bugger!

Thanks for that

 

[Tabby Kapak]

Birdseye, thanks for your input! But we have a question, is 70 healing (80 with enhanced bandages) reliable to crossheal? Cause we get a lot of "barely helps" on 80... So we are curious to hear about your experiences.