Rapier or Sword/Shield?

[MugHug]

Rapier or Sword/Shield?

Pros and cons for mainly PvE.

Any hands-on experience?

[Enker-Zan]

I've been running sword and shield as a tank and it pretty much trivializes all of the PvE stuff that I've come across so far and I'm lvl 25. It doesn't do tons of damage (at least not the way I have it set up) but if you have the patience you will come out on top with at most half HP missing and won't have to use a consumable.

[MugHug]

Originally posted by Enker-Zan:

I've been running sword and shield as a tank and it pretty much trivializes all of the PvE stuff that I've come across so far and I'm lvl 25. It doesn't do tons of damage (at least not the way I have it set up) but if you have the patience you will come out on top with at most half HP missing and won't have to use a consumable.

What do you used for ranged combat?

[AvivLobel]

as a pure tank with S&S, dmg isnt that great but the block is pretty strong , if your good at timing u can do 2-3 attack , block and the mob dont hit you once.

[diablo09]

Dude... respec is free until lvl 20. try out both and pick what you like. I use S&S.

[Enker-Zan]

Originally posted by MugHug:

Originally posted by Enker-Zan:

I've been running sword and shield as a tank and it pretty much trivializes all of the PvE stuff that I've come across so far and I'm lvl 25. It doesn't do tons of damage (at least not the way I have it set up) but if you have the patience you will come out on top with at most half HP missing and won't have to use a consumable.

What do you used for ranged combat?

I throw Hatchets when I need to, but I close gaps as quickly as possible.

[MugHug]

Originally posted by diablo09:

Dude... respec is free until lvl 20. try out both and pick what you like. I use S&S.

Already used the respec feature.

The purpose of the post was to find out the views of other players, who have tried both.

[MugHug]

Originally posted by Enker-Zan:

Originally posted by MugHug:

What do you used for ranged combat?

I throw Hatchets when I need to, but I close gaps as quickly as possible.

Heavy or Med armor?

[Enker-Zan]

Originally posted by MugHug:

Originally posted by Enker-Zan:

I throw Hatchets when I need to, but I close gaps as quickly as possible.

Heavy or Med armor?

Heavy armor.

[Echo2Omega]

Rapier has great bleed damage that pairs really well with spear for some top tier DPS. Rapier also has some amazing mobility (great for PVP, OK for PVE)

Sword (and shield) is a solid all around weapon, but there are better choices for single target (hatchet), AOE (great axe), defensive (right side sword tree), and or mobility (rapier). IF you opt for the right tree (the tanking tree) it is very durable but it is for getting punched in the face, not DPS.

[Cpt Obvious]

Rapier counterattack tree is lots of fun.

[Sarina]

Originally posted by MugHug:

Rapier or Sword/Shield?

Pros and cons for mainly PvE.

Any hands-on experience?

Both are no good for PvE. you want to use a 2 handed melee weapon and wear STR/CON gears.

[Ant Ra]

At the moment, it can also be difficult with a rapier because of the high combat speed of the weapon. If you execute your attacks and then want to make a quick turn with the char, everything is suddenly slowed down and you immediately stand wrong. Which in pvp but also in pve can be punished immediately.

By the way, I also noticed this with the spear. It's as if the control can't connect fast chains of movements and actions well enough yet. So a technical problem.

And no, I haven't had any lags in the whole game so far. This is due to fast weapons and can also happen when switching between two different weaponsets. With slower weapons there are no interruptions in the movement in my experience.

[Stannis]

Depends on your play style. If you like to hop around and like to think about the spacing and positioning of your character in a fight, go with the rapier. If you like to be squishy but deal high damage, would rather jump out of the way than block, go rapier. If you like to stand there like a rock while people bang on your shield while you wait for the right time to shield bash them or switch to your life staff to heal, go sword and shield. I played heavy armor with life staff, but I mostly play solo and when I switched to rapier/musket i started having a lot more fun.

[MugHug]

Originally posted by Pieticle:

Haven't tried out all the weapons yet but been using a bow + rapier and it is very fun and effective.

Both weapons scale primarily with dexterity so you can stack that one attribute for big damage, and the rapier fills in a lot of the short range weaknesses of the bow.

Interesting.

[Kashra Fall]

Sword and shield/spear tank here. I built so far at level 31, 92 str, 82 con, 50 dex (Varies with items, but I try to keep my dex about half of my str because sword/spear scale with it.)

I hit standard hits of 280-360, crits for anywhere in the region of 430-560 with the sword.
Spear is quicker hits and a lot more control. Knock down into coup-de-grace into stagger poke into javelin throw. Stagger poke does a 30% damage reduction debuff on the target, allowing my sword to do more while I continue to tank. With this set up,when I was running around doing the fish and shield quest (Way too early mind you.) I tanked and killed things almost 20 levels higher than me, but I wouldn't suggest doing that =P.