Shattered Kingdoms

Is it a good idea to specialize in longsword?

The answer to your question varies from person to person.

I personally wouldn't. You should check out the character build guides if you want to get a good idea of what is viable.

You also have to decide what kind of fighter you want to be. A front row tank, a less defensive fighter who reaches from the second row, or someone who likes to fight from range with the siegecrossbow/archery bow etc.

Long sword damage isn't terrible, but it is somewhat lacking in accuracy and speed and that puts it in the below average category for the trollking.

Not the worst spec, but also not close to being the best.

thanks for the tip.
im still fairly new to SK, but im loveing every minute.
seems to have a great community.

One advantage of longsword as a specialization is that it is very common. You don't have to try very hard to find a good one.

alright, that's something i'd wondered, if good longswords are common(commoner?) enough to justify.
i dont care about weapons, i just wanna be a simple fighter, roleplay is the best.

If I'm not mistaken, Bill Kourney specs in longsword. Bill is a high level merc NPC that sorcs like to charm for pvp. He routinely beats the stuffing out of PCs with his longsword.

Longsword doesn't have the best stats, but if Bill's spec is longsword and I'm not just confused, then it is definitely viable. I have no idea about its availability. Keep in mind you need it to be available in high quality materials. If you go on a pve adventure with a steel longsword, it will break very quickly. You want addy or diamond.

Bill has a broadsword. I agree that longsword isn't the best weapon, but it has great availability, especially for lighties. I would not suggest it for darkies. There is a peacekeeper NPC who has longsword as a specialization, or used to, and he gets 5 attacks with it.

Longsword spec only gets you four at gm. The NPC is likely permahasted. You should be wary about who you take advice from, especially those who lack any moderate knowledge of game/weapon mechanics.

You should specialize in halberd, bill or glaive for second row reaching. One handed front row massive should be bastard sword. Front row two handed non-massive should be pitchfork. Front row two handed massive should be greatsword. Front row one handed non-massive should be kama. Recommend you add speed and accuracy.

I wouldn't consider a longsword unless you plan on adding 6 accuracy and 6 speed runes to it which would likely be difficult. Like you said though, rp is most important to you so it really doesn't matter. Lets just hope your rp doesn't entail being competitive in pvp.

Well longsword has the same accuracy and damage as broadsword, and is slightly faster. So if Bill is handling things as well as he does with a broadsword, things should only be better with the longsword.

5 attacks with haste is fine. I mean, 6 is better, but 5 is enough to be perfectly viable.

So again, longsword isn't a choice a vet would make because there are better choices out there. Bastard sword is certainly a better pick because it has the massive weapon flag (the only one-handed bastard swords are darkie-only, though). However, longsword is definitely viable and you won't spend the rest of your time playing wishing you had gone a different route, especially if RP is your main focus. This is assuming there are ones in good materials like opey said because I've never kept track of that.

Most of the weapons that trollking mentioned make great specs, though I'm skeptical about pitchfork. I think a couple of people have tried it but not had any real success. I think most vets would say that pitchfork isn't accurate enough, even with specialization, to be useful in pvp against anyone who is set up to parry/dodge. I would only use pitchfork as a barbarian against NPCs or against PCs who aren't set up to tank properly. I wouldn't be shocked to hear it has applications outside of this, but I haven't heard of them before.

There certainly are one handed bastard swords of good material (mithril or better) which do not restrict light aura people. Can think of two off the top of my head.