so I haven't played l2 since prelude but have decided to play swordinsger becasue I like grouping a lot and I like doing melee dmg. But I was wondering what the best choice for a weapon would be, at c grade I was thinking about getting a two-handed sword, or should i just stick to a 1-hander or a bow? And also i play on Bartz and am wondering if swordsingers are in high demand and are easy to find groups with?
thanks in advance
i would use 1h and a shield, thats what most SwS i see have... bows got a bit of a nerf unless you have masteries, im not sure how much that would affect you though :P
I play a SwS (72) and a 2 hander is much better damage output than duals. You have masteries for 1 and 2 handed swords but not for dual swords.
A bow works well if you want to stay away from the mobs or your in an archer party but you have to keep up less songs to maintain mp. You want to party with a BD but with one you use more mp per song (or the BD goes OOM very quickly lol) and it gets very hard to maintain mp using a bow. A bow is great for raids and PvP though.
I am currently using a two handed sword (infernal master w/ focus) but I do miss the shield when tanking. I do not tank much though as there are usually better tanks around.
In C grade a +3 berserker with focus will out damage +4 spirit*raid duals even on classes with generic weapon masteries because the focus is so much better on the berserker (73 vs 40).. not that I have actually tested this :o. A two hander also uses slightly less SS than duals as SS isn't consumed during a miss.
Edit: The penalty for using a bow is actually only if mystics use them - fighters without bow masteries can still use them without penalties. Orc destroyers got worse with bows because now their skills (rage and frenzy) work much better with the weapons they get masteries for (or much worse with a bow or dagger).
I use a clean Dragon Slayer at 65, and fully buffed I regularly see 4-digit criticals.
Not bad for the lowest-STR fighter in the game.
Previously, I was using a Soul Separator and a Nightmare shield... with buffs, I would swear I landed about 3 crits a second.
Honestly, I think the sword-and-shield style is the worst possible combination for a SwS, unless you can get Health SA on the sword. Why? Well, we really aren't outstanding tanks, even with Earth up there are classes (TK and SK) that are better at aggro control and have higher defenses. Our DPS with 1h swords isn't impressive, no matter how many +'s or what SA it's got... the critical rate and attack speed is less than a dagger, or it does far less damage than a 2-hander, the slow speed of which we naturally off-set. If you have to use a shield, get a blunt weapon and put Health or Crit Stun, Crit Focus or something similar on it... with as many undead mobs as there are in the game, the damage bonus will be nice.
If you don't find yourself tanking for your parties, go for the 2-hander... it's nice just to see big numbers sometimes.
1h sword with Focus, or two-handed with focus. Either is good, not tested which does most overall damage, but I doubt it's noticable. I prefer the 1h/shield combo with DD armor and +5STR, you'll do decently enough, not a great DD, but an average one. Damascus is an excellent sword :> Shield is good because you'll actually block alot, I tank pretty decent on my SWS.
Health SA is for ******* and 1v1 pvp, be all that you can be, never ever use a blunt on an SWS >.< Dagger is decent I guess.. but only if you group with a BD to take advantage of the extra critical chance/dmg.