I believe that swords users are in a kind of strange spot here for a long time now. Fencing took pretty much the #1 spot because it allows both op parablows as well as the option to poison 1hand weapons. My suggestions: - Warforks shouldnt be able to get Poisoned - which would only leave the Kryss as 1H option for fencing+ poisoning. This would leave swords for a more viable option if it comes down to poisoned weapons. In my opinion Swords should be the only weapon class that should allow poisoned weapons, but removing the Kryss too wont be happening propably. - Conc blows are nice, however -25 INT is feeling too low compared to the stun that fencing has to offer. -30 or -35 INT should be reasonable numbers. Conc blows are in a kind of strange spot compared to Para- and Crushing Blows. Tuning the numbers slightly would make it a bit more interesting, it feels kind of weak imo. And yes, im aware that many people are screaming for Archery buffs, but please make this a swords discussion. Thank you. E
If weapon damage was reverted to the original script here, I think you'd like swords much better than you do now... especially the katana and halberd. If the sword is to be "the" weapon that effects mana, I'd think a mana regen debuff would make things interesting.
Secondary abilities that were toggled when you wanted to use them would help. AI had this and it was great... Costs 15 mana, 20 seconds between special moves. This would actually allow you to time your conc blows.
Poison arrows would be ridiculously OP. You can always use Poisoning on your swordsman. I don't use GM personally, but I rock 30 Poisoning on my LJ to keep my katana poisoned for disrupts and annoyance. Don't forget to factor in the reality that the katana STILL swings faster than the kryss, which is fucking ridiculous and always has been. I don't understand the logic behind swords being the only weapon you can poison, at all. If there were ever such a restriction, Fencing would be the obvious choice for stealth assassin types, etc. The division between mages and warriors is that warriors are always subject to chance and mages can always drop spells at will. Allowing warriors to toggle their special moves would make fencers completely nutso.
Since the title of this is swordsmanship I'll just comment on that: Fencing weapons seem like the most poison-likely weapons and I think it would be a shame if they, of all the weapons available, lost that function. Julius Caesar was stabbed with roman daggers and Oberyn Martell poisoned the tip of his spear before fighting Gregor Clegane. I don't think it would feel right if this was lost for poking weapons and reserved for slashing weapons.
My suggestion was rather to make Warforks unable to be poisoned. The damage they are doing is not realy compareable to other 1Hand weapons, and DP only tops it off. Leaving the Kryss and Dagger poisonable should be fine however. I believe more people would use a nox/swords template this way.. which is not realy viable at the moment given the 2H Parablow option, and ridiculously strong 1handed Warforks fencing provides.
If anything some of the swords dmg/ speed could be reworked. A Viking sword could be an alternative/contender to war forks if they weren't so damn slow.
I don't understand the logic behind swords being the only weapon you can poison, at all. If there were ever such a restriction, Fencing would be the obvious choice for stealth assassin types, etc Blaise, this is not so. Friend has a poisoned Kryss in bank a noob pker used on her next to a mage shop on Moonglow isle.
Westra, I'm not sure you follow what I mean. I was commenting on the idea in the original post, that poisoning should be for swords only. I know it currently works for all bladed weapons but the post I was replying to was suggesting a change to that.
My suggestion was to make only Warforks unable to poison - because of obvious reasons + they are not even bladed. I also wrote that fencing weapons shouldnt be allowed to be poisoned in my opinion - to give swords some special bonus compared to other weapon types. Im aware that it wont happen, and i never wanted to roll it out and discuss about the importance of poisoned daggers in an RPG. Basically i would be fine with a poisoned Kryss + Dagger. But Warforks? And yes, i do believe it would boost sword weapons, because as already mentioned, the Broadsword and the Vikingsword would be compareble to a Warfork but with the option to be poisoned. There are just too many points speaking for Fencing as weaponskill, DPed Warforks are just on top of it. It would either take some fencing nerfs or buffs for other weaponclasses to balance things out - hence my 2nd suggestion with stronger conc blows.
War forks are not as OP as you're trying to paint them, they have the ability to have large damage spikes but their DOT is pretty weak, you get a ton of single damage hits in for every strong hit. Edit: broadswords have comparable damage to war forks as it turns out, why not just use those if you're more in favor of swords?
I don't think swordsmanship needs a buff. People tend to look at UO skills the wrong way. This is not WoW, being a swordsman is not your identity. Skills are simple tools that are available to you, I always find myself puzzled when people compare their choice to other skills and for some reason expect them to do the same thing. It's like picking up a salad fork and then bitching because you can't cut a steak with it. So, let's think for a moment about the strengths and weaknesses of the weapon skills. Fencing, as someone pointed out is good for its high DPS and the ability of the spears to lock people down and this is why it is a good skill for pvp. I don't really think nerfs on the war fork are necessary, the war fork is the fencing equivalent of the broadsword. It's not like fencing is doing something that swords can't in this situation. The reasons to pick fencing revolve almost completely around spears and the ability to lock people down with them. Macing is good for explosive damage through crushing blows and for the stamina damage. War hammers are excellent weapons, I think a war hammer is a great choice for people who want to solo on tank mages and who don't mind gambling. The 60+ hits that crushing blows can deliver can kill someone almost instantly with the right spell combo following it. Quarterstaves are also the two hand equivalent of katanas - they are a great choice if you want to bash monsters fast. And then there's swords. A poor choice if you want to lock people down like fencing does, but halberds are a good enough stand in for a war hammer. But the strength of swords, that is often overlooked, is that it is an amazing defensive choice against mages. If you are concussion blowing a mage, even if you don't keep the effect on him all the time, that mana is out of the fight. The mage will never get much more mana than the concussion blow debuff amount. It means his combos against you will be one or two spells less, and he will spend more time on mana regen. I think it's a great choice for both tank mages and dexers who spend lots of time in prolonged battles against mages, and this is before lumberjacking even enters the equation. The lumberjack swords templates are probably the strongest dexers on the server, both vs mages and vs other dexers. As for archery, I believe it is also fine. The ability to attack at range and attack on the run is huge. I know people want to run all over the server killing people with machine gun poison heavy xbows, but I don't think that would be very fun for anyone who isn't an archer.
