Shattered Kingdoms

Not sure what weapons to specialize in anyone got any tips?

I usually get one spec that is known to be good, and spec in something iffy and new.
Claymore and Flamberge is good for two handed front row damage and limb cutting.
Battle spear are good for second row and effective against swashies.
Sickle seems popular, but I haven't done that one.
Kama would be good defensively, but I doubt it would do much damage. I'd only do it if you planned to soak up damage, and even then I think there are better subtypes for that.
I can't remember if it is the halberd or not that is the new most damgaing weapon.
While realistically, a long sword or katana would be one of the better weapons, they aren't worth the effort IMO in this game. So something else that compared better than those if you wanted a one hander for up front and a shield.

well, to go generic

Battle spears and something else

I think it would be awesome to specialize as a giant in siege weaponry

Viable one hander specs, in my opinion of course, ranging from decent damage to decent tankage basically no-dachi - khopesh - longsword/khukri - straight dagger - shuriken - rapier - epee - sai (things get a bit sketchy as to the order of the weapons back in the tanking end of this, and straight dagger should imo rate rather high on both tanking and damage dealing)

For two-handers I would personally prefer pikes over battle spears, and greatswords over claymores/flamberges.

I'm a number-crunching nerd, so here's my list of fun specs.

Reaching Specs
Battle spear: Ol' faithful, the generic kickass battlespear. The most accurate of the reaching weapons, fairly damaging, and about 4 hits a round. Sometimes 3 if it's feeling finicky.
Pike: Slightly less conventional than a battlespear but pretty much just as effective. VERY easy to find, less accurate than the spear but more damaging and just as fast.
Ahlspiess: 3-4 hits a round at GM, but unlike the first two you won't hit 5 attacks even with haste. That can be a bit of a downer, but the huge damage makes up for it. Not so accurate and pretty rare, but few people use them (although everyone respects them), so you'll have the lion's share to enchant out the butt.
Battlewhip: Inaccurate, moderate damage, and unparryable. You WILL need to enchant this a lot to get the accuracy to a respectable level, but I've seen it do pretty cool stuff. Syn swears by it. Oh, and it's one-handed, although there's a two-handed variant.
Halberd: Slow as hell, about as accurate as shooting darts out of your bunghole, and it hits like about five trucks put together. I would not recommend it at all, because whenever anyone sees you coming they'll just go mood defensive and you'll never hit a damn thing.
Bandalore: Fast, accurate, low damage, unparryable. Not a good combo for a merc, and the competition is pretty fierce against all the barbs drooling over them. I wouldn't do it.

Two-handed Specs
Greatsword: This is the best two-handed weapon there is. Unfortunately, almost all of the good ones are darkie-only. A darkie merc can really have a field day with the scripted ones, I will say that much. This is a scary weapon in the hands of a buffed merc.
Flamberge: Used to be the two-handed spec of choice, then greatsword got buffed over it. It's...not bad, I guess, and no one else is using them whatsoever.
Claymore: Faster, less common, less damaging, less accurate. I don't think the speed is enough to add another attack over the greatsword, so I wouldn't recommend it. It's cute, at least.
Greataxe: Don't do it unless you're a dwarf. Even if you're a dwarf, look before you leap; this is a slow weapon, and although the damage is massive, the accuracy isn't as good as a greatsword's.
Pitchfork: Fast as hell, pretty inaccurate, and nice damage. Get it well-enchanted and it's pretty crazy. I still remember Tragonis's dwarf merc who kicked everyone's [REDACTED] with this thing.
Hunting spear: 5 hits a round at GM, good accurate, medium-low damage. No significant weaknesses other than the fact that there aren't any one-handed variants. If there was just one mithril or diamond one-handed hunting spear, I know that I'd be all over that [REDACTED] in an instant. Nice spec for, say, a fist merc.

One-handed Specs
Khopesh: 4 attacks, 5 with haste, good accuracy, and moderate damage, plus some pretty kickass scripted versions. It's still nice even after it got wimped.
Falchion: Easy to find, average speed, moderate accuracy, good enough damage. It's nothing amazing but it's really really really easy to find if you lose your stuff a lot. There are some easily available good subtypes, too.
Katana: Average speed, good accuracy, okay damage. Nice defensive weapon, nothing spectacular. REALLY easy to find.
Straight Dagger: Katana's slightly-less-sexy younger sister, but there are definite perks to this spec. Hint: I'm tired right now, so I originally typed "pain stick" for the subtype name.
Battleaxe: Pretty much a khopesh for dwarves. If you're not a dwarf don't touch it.
Sickle: Fast, inaccurate, very damaging. It can be tough to find a good material, but once you have a good one it's oodles of fun. Especially for PvE. You get shield block for "aight" tanking and oodles of damage on NPCs who aren't swashies. P.S. Stay the hell away from swashies.
Khukri: Not quite as fast as sickle, but still gets 5 attacks at GM, 6 with haste. Less damaging, more accurate. Not bad, although they're kinda rare. You can be a special snowflake if that's what you're into.
Nunchaku: Same speed as a khukri, low damage, medium-low accuracy. Nice for killing swashies, rare unless you're a lightie who doesn't mind using request liberally. Don't fight anything but a swashie with it (IE don't spec it unless you only fight swashies).
Epee: Really fast, really accurate, low damage. The premier tanking weapon. Go mood defensive with an enchanted weapon, a good shield, high-AC armor, and below-half encumbrance, and you will be close to untouchable. Buffs will just put that even further through the roof. Note: it's tough to get a better material than mithril, but mithril is REALLY easy to get. There's like one or two scripted energy/adamantite variants which are fun to play with.
Shuriken: Slightly faster (doesn't make any difference at all), slightly less accurate (not enough to make a difference either) version of the epee. Less common at the cheap material level, more common at the energy/adamantite level. Sakhul specced in this and kicked buttooski.
Kama: Same speed as above, lower accuracy, higher damage. Basically a more offensive tanking weapon. VERY nice for giant mercs. Slightly rare.
Wakizashi: Same speed as above, accuracy and damage between shuriken and kama. Just another flavor of tanking, easy to find subtypes with a very nice darkie religious weapon. Also nice for giant mercs.
No-dachi: My personal favorite of all one-handed weapons. Most variants are actually two-handed, and I've never seen anything better than mithril, but the mithril one-handers (I know of two types to be found) are amazing. Very nice accuracy, medium-high damage, and four hits a round, unless it's feeling finicky--same speed as battlespear, donchaknow. Hits like a truck on offense, parries like a mofo on defense. Competition will be STIFF with the swashies, but if you come out on top it's well worth it.

Ranged Specs
disclaimer - these aren't really done any more because you can't wear heavy armor and shoot with any accuracy at all any longer. If you make a back-row merc, there's still immense potential though.
Longbow: Range as far as the eye can see, great accuracy, great damage, good speed. I want to say there's four hits a round with barbed arrows to be had, but I honestly can't say for sure so don't quote me. Might just be three. Battle arrows still hurt on this mofo, though.
Crossbow: Lower range, lower speed, but AMAZING damage. Frankly, any non-tanks in the enemy group should be terrified of this weapon.


Don't spec in anything not on this list unless you're sure that you know what you're doing.

Yeaaaah, no-dachis were clearly meant to be two-handed weapons (as they were in the game for years), which is why they've been so buff for a while now. Some builder around last year or so decided that it'd be cool to let people 1-handed wield a 4-6 foot long sword http://membres.multimania.fr/yamatokendo/images/Nodachi.jpg

This is why their stats are way above and beyond par for 1-handed swords... they were originally intended for what would've been a faster, somewhat accurate, but somewhat weak (compared to say a flamberge/greatsword), two-handed sword. As a result, it is not really limited by accuracy, speed, or damage. It's the ultimate all-rounder as far as 1-handers goes. For swashies, I could be wrong but there's practically no better main hand weapon. For mercs and barbs uh, it seems like people are really into super fast exotics, but a no-dachi still isn't a bad choice at all.

vets can 1-hand it

Siege Crossbow!

Ah the people I've effectively shafted with that!

Personally, I don't think they're too shabby even for a two-hander. They can get 5 hits a round at GM with good haste, and their accuracy and damage isn't much less than a greatsword's.

In order to pick a spec, you need to know what you want.

Ranger damage dealer would be an excellent choice for someone in a tribunal, with it perhaps pick a one-handed tanking weapon just so you can have some survivability.

You can always go with a one-handed tanking weapon and a two-handed damage weapon, which is what a lot of merc choose.

A thing to consider when choosing a spec is availability and whether you know how to get a weapon made of either water, diamond, energy or adamantite. Anything else would unfortunately break too easily.