specialize

Trosis · **Posted:** Thu Jun 19, 2014 7:46 am

Daigishere wrote:

thanks for the tip.
im still fairly new to SK, but im loveing every minute.
seems to have a great community.

A great community? You must be new here. Lol welcome. Hope you stay for a while.

FinneyOwnzU · **Joined:** Wed Apr 24, 2002 11:51 am **Posts:** 1500

Daigishere wrote:

Is it a good idea to specialize in longsword?

No, not really.

Optimal specializations, which have reach: glaive, halberd, bill, and bec de corbin.

Viable specializations, which have reach: pike, battle spear, ahlspiess

Optimal two-handed, non-reach specializations: don't go this route - just don't do it.

Viable two-handed, non-reach specializations: see above.

Optimal one-handed specializations: bastard sword, battle axe, epee, rapier, kama

Viable one-handed specializations: no-dachi, khopesh, flail (!parry), kusari-gama (!parry), battle whip (reach, !parry), bandalore (reach, !parry)

Baldric · **Posted:** Thu Jun 19, 2014 3:07 pm

Opey wrote:

There certainly are one handed bastard swords of good material (mithril or better) which do not restrict light aura people. Can think of two off the top of my head.

They might have been added in the last two years, then. There weren't any when I last played, I am fairly sure.

Finney, I guess it depends on what you mean by "viable." You or I could probably roll the mud with a longsword specced merc, so I would consider it a viable choice, even if it is two steps down from optimal. It's stats are not great but they're not terrible either. A good player would beat an average player while wielding one.

trollking · **Joined:** Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:42 pm **Posts:** 214

lol @ baldric thinking he could roll the mud with a longsword. The trollking would destroy your longsword spec.

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

Baldric wrote:

Well longsword has the same accuracy and damage as broadsword, and is slightly faster. So if Bill is handling things as well as he does with a broadsword, things should only be better with the longsword.

5 attacks with haste is fine. I mean, 6 is better, but 5 is enough to be perfectly viable.

So again, longsword isn't a choice a vet would make because there are better choices out there. Bastard sword is certainly a better pick because it has the massive weapon flag (the only one-handed bastard swords are darkie-only, though). However, longsword is definitely viable and you won't spend the rest of your time playing wishing you had gone a different route, especially if RP is your main focus. This is assuming there are ones in good materials like opey said because I've never kept track of that.

Most of the weapons that trollking mentioned make great specs, though I'm skeptical about pitchfork. I think a couple of people have tried it but not had any real success. I think most vets would say that pitchfork isn't accurate enough, even with specialization, to be useful in pvp against anyone who is set up to parry/dodge. I would only use pitchfork as a barbarian against NPCs or against PCs who aren't set up to tank properly. I wouldn't be shocked to hear it has applications outside of this, but I haven't heard of them before.

I don't know what weapon bill uses offhand but it takes him forever to kill anything with it.

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

Baldric wrote:

Opey wrote:

There certainly are one handed bastard swords of good material (mithril or better) which do not restrict light aura people. Can think of two off the top of my head.

They might have been added in the last two years, then. There weren't any when I last played, I am fairly sure.

Finney, I guess it depends on what you mean by "viable." You or I could probably roll the mud with a longsword specced merc, so I would consider it a viable choice, even if it is two steps down from optimal. It's stats are not great but they're not terrible either. A good player would beat an average player while wielding one.

This is specialization you're talking about, not berserk. A lot of weapons that work with a barbarian, do not work as well with a mercenary. It's also much harder to experiment with weapons when you're not a barbarian seeing as specialization is permanent, and you can't pay say loyalty tokens to change them, which would be fine so long as the limit to specs remains 3.

Baldric · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 7:05 pm

I know frenzy has been nerfed since I played, but GM frenzy used to be just about equal to the GM fury bonus. Getting powerful vials should get your damage output in the same league as the barb.

Bill does take a while to kill people. His weapon probably isn't enchanted, though, and he doesn't ever have frenzy. Either way, he is an absolutely fantastic tank, and disarms people all the time, and you get two specs.

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

Three, if you wait long enough to age your character. An aged mercenary is far better than a non-aged mercenary.

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