Does swords have a place in this game?

[Flying Mage]

What I mean is that axes are covering your slashing AND woodchoping needs. So why would you want a sword?.. The fighting animation and timings are kinda nice, but I still forge them last or skip completely cause they seem very unnecessary. Am I alone here or do you feel the same?

[vinyblaster]

Swords actually feels like the "safest" choice in terms of weapons.

Axes are ok, but so freaking slow. I dont think I've ever seen any player use them as primary weapon.

[Flying Mage]

I don't use axe as primary either. I prefer mace, for the stuns. But if something has weakness to slashing damage, axe will do the job just fine. And you always need one for woodchopping anyway, so it's not like you can forge a sword and forget about the axe.

[Sound]

On my first playthrough I used swords. The main draw to them is that they're faster and longer than axes. You can slash quicker, and they can reach enemies further away. In addition, the middle mouse attack for swords is a very powerful jab that does way more damage than axes could do.

[bacon]

swords are pretty pointless currently, because of where slash damage fits in. like you said, axes already do slash.

veterans know that the real "scarcity" in this game is belt slots. i cant give up a slot to a slash weapon when i already have an axe. axe is basically a slash weapon that is maybe 25% less effective than the sword, but also cuts wood.

also, the only enemy that really wants slash damage is the abomination (swamp tree heavyweight enemy). every other enemy takes equal or greater damage from pierce or blunt. so, slash damage in general isnt very important to have, just due to enemy resistances. its the "middle of the road" physical damage type, but you are better off taking the combination of a pierce weapon and a blunt weapon and benefiting from the balanced coverage you get from both damage types. remember: there are no best weapons. your offensive capacity is based on your overall loadout, including physical and elemental, melee and ranged, control and DPS, etc.

mistwalker helps the case for swords, since it has frost damage and related slowdown effect, but it too isnt really differentiated from the frostner in that respect.

[Tangoblue]

It's all about play style and favorite weapons. I use a sword/shield/bow myself, love it. Early game I use a club/mace w/shield combo until after the Swamp (although I carry an iron mace when exploring the Mountains...for Golems). I just use axes to chop wood.

[knighttemplar1960]

Sure. The sword is a better weapon than the axe. You only need the axe for cutting trees. Once you can plant tree seeds at your base(s) you don't have to carry the axe with you. Most monsters resist pierce (notable exceptions are trolls and ticks). Most early biome creatures are weak or neutral to blunt damage which makes the mace a good choice but later in the game the things that are resistant to slash are also resistant to blunt.

The main difference in your choice of weapon is the special attack and whether you like knockback or not. Blunt weapons have about twice the knockback that the slashing weapons do but by the time you get to the point that a blunt weapon isn't an advantage any more your mace skill is pretty high and starting up sword wielding with the lower skill isn't worth while. You are better off sticking with a blunt weapon and benefitting from your higher skill.

[hallaloth]

Preference mostly. Playing by myself I gravitate towards Ax for functionality and less grinding of material. With other people? Your general 'go-to' kit can be whatever you want.

[blprice61]

Also depends on how much investment you want to make in the bronze age. Besides the basic necessities (forge, cauldron, nails, cultivator, bronze ax to cut fine wood, workbench and forge upgrades that is.

Two weapon types are best left to their upgraded Meadows versions; namely spear and club. The bronze versions just aren't worth it imo.

That leaves the new weapons; sword and atgeir. If you want to use those weapons later in the game, investing in at least an un-upgraded version of your choice is almost a necessity so that you don't have to spend extra time later training up the skill.

For sword, one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that it is one of the few weapons that does not suffer a damage penalty when hitting multiple targets in the same swing.

Also I think the need to specialize in mace is exaggerated because... Stagbreaker (and its later kin). I can't imagine a run where I wouldn't make one, though I normally only use it for dungeons and certain Bonemass related strategies.

[Xea]

Swords have a much better moveset than axes. Axes are slash damage for peasants.

[Cooperal]

When comparing swords to axes, it mostly comes down to the fact that swords can poke with secondary attacks whereas axes cannot. Any Souls veteran can attest to the added safety that outstretching with a poke attack can bring compared to the normal swinging combo.

The range of swords are also slightly greater than axes with a hitbox length measuring 2.4 (units?) instead of 2.2. Swords also come with greater durability when compared to axes of the same tier but the difference is not consistent across all tiers.

[blprice61]

Two things in favor of ax: secondary chop attack downward on uneven terrain and.. playing with no portals where every bit of weight and every last inventory slot is important.

[JP_Russell]

IIRC, swords have the highest potential DPS in the game by A LOT with power combos, if your execution is on point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uivNFTELPu4

[Faceplant]

The two major advantages of sword over any other weapons class are (as already mentioned) not having a multi-target penalty, and the huge amount of damage that it does. A Krom can do over 1000 damage, and any sword can 1-shot most enemies at the appropriate level for the sword. A simple combo attack will finish off most enemies.

In my experience, you're much better off gaining proficiency (personal and skill level) in a single weapon class than lugging around multiple weapons just so you can, possibly, in the rare case, kill something a bit faster. The things that are most likely to kill you either don't have a weakness, or are weak to all damage types.

I've made at least one run through the game maining each of the major weapon types, with the exception of axe, spear, and polearm. I just couldn't get into spear, and I didn't feel comfortable with polearm against higher-level enemies, so I bailed. Axe just doesn't seem like a good choice for a primary weapon to me, but I might have to try it to be sure.

IMO, the sword is the strongest weapon, for the reasons listed above, with knife in a close second. I'm just completing another run with knife, and it is alot of fun. Believe it or not, it's not that hard to kill even a stone golem with a knife.

[Zombits]

Axes are the worst melee weapons in this game by far, slow and no combo. You cut trees and swing at small mobs while you chop trees, thats it .

EVERY other weapon have a reason to use it in different fights

[bacon]

Originally posted by Zombits:

Axes are the worst melee weapons in this game by far, slow and no combo. You cut trees and swing at small mobs while you chop trees, thats it .

EVERY other weapon have a reason to use it in different fights

axe has the same light 1-1-2 combo that most melee weapons have.