Shattered Kingdoms

What greatsword was that?

Sword of the Damned? Or Soulshard..or something. God it's been so long since I had locate, I forget.

Sword of the damned.

I've no idea what happened to the Soulshard.

Can someone explain this to me? I get that dwarves start out with axe mastered, but won't any merc that masters axe be just as good as a dwarf with it?

They also have innate bonuses to accuracy and speed when using axes.

Makes sense about the axes then, thanks. Honestly this thread is interesting to me, as I've never played a straight melee class and I know nothing about the weapons, and its kinda hard to figure things out IC as everyone has fairly different opinions except for the usual:

1) kama parries best and is great
2) claymores good
3) epee's good, but don't do damage..
etc... so, I was wondering if someone thats done a lot of melee stuff would enlighten the rest of?

What determines a weapons ability to parry? I know its mostly based on accuracy, but weapon type also plays a big role too, right? ie. a sword parries better than an axe parries better than a mace?

bastard swords are now massive weapons and it seems like it might be a worthwhile spec, anyone know about that?
Also, can you specialize in a single weapon twice, therefore becoming super awesome with it? and lastly, speccing in bows affects the fire rate, not just the melee?
If this is too IC of a question, I apologize, but if its not, I would love some insight. Thanks either way!

bastard sword is an excellent choice of spec. The only good bastard sword in the game is darkie-only. If you are playing a darkie merc, I would highly recommend speccing in bastard sword. Or you could find a darkie priest to fade it for you. It isn't unique and nobody else specs in it for whatever reason.

Parrying ability is determined by accuracy. Massive weapons are harder to parry and slightly harder to parry with, but this penalty is negligible while the bonus is significant. A list of massive weapons can be found in a recent code update post by dulrik.

If you go to [REDACTED].com and look under game information there is an old post that ranks all the weapons in terms of their accuracy, speed, and damage. It's not 100% accurate and is a little outdated but I think you'll find it useful.

Speccing in bows improves your ranged attack with them. But you're going to have to wear light armor or energy while using a bow. There is a heavy armor penalty.

There's no such thing as a double spec.

Flail is a great spec for a lightie. Many good quality weapons that can be gotten easy.

bows are dumb to spec in. Now crossbows...