Curse

Right Hand · Jan 22, 2006, 07:20 AM // 07:20

I've been seeing a lot of Sword warriors in PvP lately. Can someone enlighten me as to what advantages they have over a Hammer or Axe warrior that warrants them in a GvG or HoH setup?

Stormlord Alex · Jan 22, 2006, 02:11 PM // 14:11

I really don't know, but until someone who does know comes in and tells ya, I'd hazard a guess that if the Warriors co-ordinate Final Thrust on something below 50% health, then whatever it is would probably die. If it's a squishy, that is.

monk54321 · Jan 22, 2006, 02:17 PM // 14:17

Thats absolutely why, Final Thrust is pretty much the only reason people use swords.

leeky baby · Jan 22, 2006, 02:30 PM // 14:30

hammer warriors are genrally 2 slow but they are gd because kd espically with aftershock. The problem with a sword is its elite 'hundrad blades' is quite bad compared to evsicate.

dont feel no pain · Jan 22, 2006, 03:38 PM // 15:38

yeah agreeed hundred blades needs buff , orignaly it wasn't even a elite i dont think , they just made it one because of mes/w doing IW with it. so it needs some form off buff like emm it causing bleeding or mabye it should have the same extra dmg like 5-15 extra dmg on each one , it needs more than just 2 swipes to foe and adjacent. because realy it is a cyclone axe that just hits twice and has twice the recharge and not to mention it has no bonus dmg

.

TheBanishedOne · Jan 22, 2006, 08:16 PM // 20:16

poison bleed combo is quite deadly, also riposite, with gladiator's defense is a good combo...

Murder In China · Jan 22, 2006, 09:55 PM // 21:55

One Sword warrior can bring "Charge!" while the other ones can use hundred blades to build up adrenaline for the spike.

Katari · Jan 23, 2006, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Unlike Axes or hammers, Swords do not depend on thier elite as much. But besides that, for PvP, the only real advantage is Final Thrust.

Riposte, Deadly Riposte, while nice for PvE, are not the sort of skills that you'd want on a PvP warrior.

Zodiak · Jan 23, 2006, 04:00 PM // 16:00

Yeah

Since sword dmg doesnt have a huge wide gap as axes do, its preatty much constant high.

I admit that I use 100 blades as an elite skill with final thrust alot of the time combined with berserker stance and a few others

But getting ennemies to line up in front of you isnt always easy.

100 blades needs something new to it. Its something people use to build adrenaline but Cyclone Axe should work better.

Cyclone Axe is a preatty damn nice skill along with other nice axe ones. But I've just never tried one much, though I should. so I'm not used to how the skills can work together for one

AxeMe · Jan 23, 2006, 07:20 PM // 19:20

As you can tell from my name here and my IGN (Just Axe Me) I spend most of my time with an axe.

But since I had the Victo Blade I wanted to use it in random PvP just for fun. I was actually impressed with the health degen from bleeding and then hitting hundred blades and final thrust to finish the job in PvP.

I had a pretty stereotypical attitude about swords. But (and, unlike the rest of you my experience with swords is very limited so maybe my brief peek wasn't accurate and I would sure trust your impressions more than mine) I came away impressed with how quick I could kill in PvP. Then, just for fun, I did my usual solo hydra run with the sword (and it isn't customized since I doubt that I'll keep it) and that went fine too. I would have figured that - without cyclone - I would have trouble. But while hundred blades doesn't hold up as well with more than three hydras at a time, the sword skills were good enough to let me finish the entire run without dying and it didn't even take that much longer.

Criminally Sane · Jan 23, 2006, 07:33 PM // 19:33

Hamstorm ftw!111eleventyone. Can't hamstorm with an axe.

Seef II · Jan 23, 2006, 11:08 PM // 23:08

You could rakestorm.

Murder In China · Jan 23, 2006, 11:45 PM // 23:45

Rakestorm requires dismemberstorm, The only advantage I see with a Sword warrior in Pvp is that they can use "Charge!" to boost the whole party to run 25% faster or boost the flag runner.

BigTru · Jan 24, 2006, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Always found it kinda strange that guilds like Last Pride have more than one sword warrior, but I think bleeding and deep wound is the answer. It can be spammed quite often. Sure, the monks could try to remove it, but they'd only be wasting their energy as it will shortly be reapplied.

Though I would like to hear what iQ thinks of them, as they usually know-whats-what on the actual numbers involved and the efficiency of a skill.

Murder In China · Jan 24, 2006, 01:49 AM // 01:49

I haven't seen iQ Gvg lately, they must be conducting a new GvG build using Sword warriors now. I'm interested in seeing how well they can go with it.

Siliconwafer · Jan 24, 2006, 02:06 AM // 02:06

I believe the differences between axe and sword DPS were worked out to be negligible. However, the axe chain (Pene+Evisc+Exe) is generally easier and less conditional than an equivalent sword chain. Like others have said, you get to put "Charge!" on a sword warrior, which is very, very useful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTru

Always found it kinda strange that guilds like Last Pride have more than one sword warrior, but I think bleeding and deep wound is the answer. It can be spammed quite often. Sure, the monks could try to remove it, but they'd only be wasting their energy as it will shortly be reapplied.

That's probably a good point, because Evil run their build with a pressure focus, and probably don't need the big axe combo as much. And of course, if you split, that's one charge per team, which makes things a lot easier, and makes your team a lot more mobile.

Oh yes, and you can't pass up Hamstorm.

Yolanda Kai · Jan 24, 2006, 06:31 AM // 06:31

I would generally agree that Sword is probably better suited for PvE... I don't do much PvP but I definitely want an axe for access to some really nasty skills.

BigTru · Jan 24, 2006, 07:10 AM // 07:10

Alright, here are more observations I've made:

Much of the Eviscerate-Executioner's spike damage comes from Deep Wound. The main spike combo with Sword Warrior's is Galrath-Final Thrust. Think about it, with Sever Artery-Gash, shouldn't the target already have Deep Wound on it by the time you're ready to do a Galrath-Final Thrust spike? Another thing to note is that if your opponent is below 50%, it usually means their energy has been taxed a bit. I think sword warriors are idea for pressure builds. They won't ever be prefered by the mass majority imo because Final Thrust is situational, but they can crank out a lot of damage too, even if overshadowed slightly by axes.

However... after trying sword seriously, I now prefer it. Besides, I think generic axe warriors who have 90% of the same skills as the next is getting boring, anywho =p

Battle Torn · Jan 24, 2006, 08:54 AM // 08:54

I use both swords and axes, but prefer swords

Hundred blades, sever artery, Hundred blades, garlath and final thrust is a good combo to pull off (may take a few hits in between if you dont use a furious wepon). Hundred blades is good for adrenalin if your striking a few at a time and essential is you ask me for garlath and final thrust. Berserker stance is useful too but only for short bursts against 1 or 2 enemies and if used correctly you can pull off x2 garlath and x2 Final thrusts very quickly against a single foe especially with a furious weapon not to mention a few Hundred blades thrown in, however not many people like this skill because of the cool-off, but it enables you to kill quickly for short periods of time, its just up to you to use it when you need it. I use a zealous and furious sword and switch between em when necessary and couldnt do without both of em. I have a simple rule that if Im enchanted I switch to zealous and if Im not then I switch to furious. Frenzy is also good to use but only if you bring another stance (like berserker) to cancel it when you need to.

audioaxes · Jan 24, 2006, 01:41 PM // 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeky baby

hammer warriors are genrally 2 slow but they are gd because kd espically with aftershock. The problem with a sword is its elite 'hundrad blades' is quite bad compared to evsicate.

hammers are not good for aftershock.... that skill is so overrated for a knockdown warrior its not even funny
sure frenzy W/E with a dev->crushing->irresistable->heavy->aftershock combo looks good on paper but using aftershock is too energy demanding to keep up and doesnt give "that much" of a damage increase compared to more maintainable 5 energy attacks like irresistable

what hammers are good for are doing nice high damage hits and unleashing a very dangerous knockdown "one man" spike in which the victim cant do anything except a 1/4 second skill in between irresistable->second knockdown and anything short longer than that will just get interrupted and trying to run after first knockdown will give a nice critical spike

and back of subject, most warriors have always used swords, many with just absolutely crap builds which give swords a bad rep