Ryzom

I'm curious about player's preferences for weapon choice, especially if there is a game mechanic behind the reasons for their choices.

What do you use and why ?

One handed, or one handed with shield. No specific reason in terms aof game mechanics, just a question of personal style

Up untli lvl 50 I also used dual wield (sword and dagger) which looked very cool, but beyond lvl 50 you get a split in your XP, so it becomes rather inefficient.

Ranna - Server Leanon

I chose 2 handed, but that'd be 2h ranged

My main focus has been 1h and shield, but I enjoy all the fighting styles. I like having a diverse character so I use just about everything in this game. Only thing I can't get myself to do is start range fighting.

-Fist

I have used about every weapon the game offers (in kind if not every races) I think there are many good choices, I prefer to fight 2h though. I use dual, sword dagger commonly as well. For me, I think you get the most out of your increase damage stanzas with 2h. Dual dagger will burn stam for little reward, but if you are low on stam, dual dagger pumps in the hits with just the defualt attack. I would say it is worth examining your play style to be maximally effective. That is different stratagies work better for different mobs and different weapons. Additionally, the most effective weapons change a bit with level. A level 200 fighter can do some impressive things with bare hands (a good thing considering how few of us crafters are up to speed to produce those high end weapons)

For me one handed OR dual, as I understand it (and I could be wrong) most if not all weapons are roughly the same damage per second (excepting ranged which most agree is flaked out at the moment).

Since I am not in the BEST armor I can wear at my level (my crafting is lagging behind my melee and so far behind my foraging level as to be shameful at the very least. I think that foraging and crafting need to be tweeked, and I do NOT think foraging needs nerfing, rather I think that crafting needs buffing), I don't like getting hit, and the only way to reduce the damage both I and my tattered armor take is to hit more often.

With two handed, I swung SO slowly and missed WAY too much for how slow the sword hit, that I tested out the dual wielding. My logic (could be skewed, and your millage WILL vary yada yada) is that if I swing more, ONE miss is MUCH less of a tragedy than if I swing less (twenty swings four misses, not bad, 12 swings 4 misses, DEAD warrior).

I am aware that two handed deal out MUCH more damage PER hit, but over time I have not found them to be the fastest way to kill, nor definately the "better" weapon.

I honestly have NOT tried using a shield, and only rarely see another melee with one. Why this is I haven't a clue.

Now if fashion matters...

***WARNING GRAPHIC USE OF PERSONAL OPINION FOLLOWS, IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY YOUR OPINION WILL DIFFER. IF THIS FRIGHTENS YOU...DO NOT PROCEED***

I like the Looks of the Fyros two handed sword. The Matis pike is MUCH better looking than the Fyros one. And I think the Fyros one hander and dagger are about as BLAND as you can get.


***PERSONAL FASHION OPINION ENDS***

My advice is simple, in noobie land, before you leave, buy one of EACH of the vendor fodder weapons AND armor and a shield. Try out the combos until YOU are happy. There you go, you found the perfect gear set up...for you.

(to my knoweldge, and experience ONLY a one handed sword and a dagger can be dual wielded, and the dagger MUST be in the off hand. You can dual wield a dagger and a dagger, but I find the damage of a sword and dagger is slighly better, and the slightly difference in speed from the sword to dagger is NOT enough to grossly affect the damage per second).

Yes after a certain point, which I think is 50 or 51, your one handed and close combat (either bare fists or daggers until you reach the NEXT skill tree split which goes into the TYPE of close combat) do split. BUT I tend to see tree splits as a blessing instead of a curse, sure I level a tad slower, BUT when I level, I tend to level both in the same minute and get TWO sp instead of JUST one. I am sure that you could find something to spend ten more SP on, I know I have. (umm extra HP, stamina or regen of either anyone, yep, thought you would want some).

At the moment ANYTHING but ranged is a viable choice. I have seen mace wielders advancing well, and one player I grouped with on more than one occassion had a rather WICKED looking axe that she wielded like some holy avenger. Others preferr the two handed pike, I have seen the RARE lance (one handed) user. And I still see a few of the roguish persuasion that favor the two dagger up close and personal style.

I have seen armor usage ranging from FULL heavy armor of Medium quality or higher including a helmet, through hodge podged heavy, medium and light weight, to medium and light to light ALL the way down to neked healers, and the rare neked warrior (although this neked fighting group was PRE patch one SO...this neked fighting MIGHT be a thing of the past and our children might just LAUGH at us when we tell them the ledges of neked fighting).

PLUS all my experience is limited to mobs under level 150. Above 150 is just a ledge and mystery to me at this point. I am rather certain that MUCH will change as we level up. I am certain that good quality armor made of the BEST grade of materials you can find, buy or steal will become as essential as AIR after some point in game. I just have NO idea what that level is.

If you find a weapon you like the looks of...try it out. Worst thing that could happen is you find yourself playing at the kiddie table for a night or two while that weapon's skill tree catches up (and there we go with MORE sp again, aint this game GRAND. You change your mind and instead of a HUGE penalty, you make new friends and get a BONUS pile of SP. Talk about your win win. Since the split in the tree STILL gain the xp in the general class you can spend those two handed sp or those close sp or those one handed sp on ANY skill under melee fighter. Same thing holds true for other classes as well, this is a MAJOR blessing in crafting where SOME branches level MUCH easier than others, and MANY forms still cost about the same as the ransom for your average Matisian virginal princess.)

I'm a mage and a forager. If I have to draw my melee weapon it's because I screwed up and let something get too close. My primary concern is being able to equip my weapon quickly. One item is easier to equip than two and my assumption (untested) is that a two-hander will do more damage than a single one-handed weapon.

I also take asthetics into consideration. Many of the weapons look unreasonably large to me. The zorai pike, however, looks like a weapon I could actually lift and swing. Unfortunately the fight animation with my pointy-ended pike includes a lot more over-the-head whacking than thrusting. I'd complain about that but I know the devs are working on more important things.

angus858 wrote:I'm a mage and a forager. If I have to draw my melee weapon it's because I screwed up and let something get too close. My primary concern is being able to equip my weapon quickly. One item is easier to equip than two and my assumption (untested) is that a two-hander will do more damage than a single one-handed weapon.

I also take asthetics into consideration. Many of the weapons look unreasonably large to me. The zorai pike, however, looks like a weapon I could actually lift and swing. Unfortunately the fight animation with my pointy-ended pike includes a lot more over-the-head whacking than thrusting. I'd complain about that but I know the devs are working on more important things.

Ditto for me. Plus keeping track of a dagger/shield when selling my crafted items and them using up inventory space is a con.

i kill with source explosions(mainly myself). does that count?

At the ladder pvp events on the Euro English server I noticed I could kill players upto 25 lvls above me using one handed combat with a shield.

If you can keep your stam up and have a good shield, you can dodge quite often and since you are hitting almost twice as fast, you got a lot more chances to slow, stun, .. your oppent.

So one handed combat with shield has my vote here