Weapons

# Swordsmanship

The fine art of **Swordsmanship** is a skill to be admired. Employing neither the wallop-on-the-head approach of the mace fighter, nor the pinging, poking thrust of the fencer, the swordsman knows the near-silent whistle of polished metal slicing the air — and other, less vaporous things…

The benefit from increased levels of swordsmanship is a greater chance to hit your target. Other melee factors, like damage and swing speed, are governed by other statistics, in this instance the weapons attributes will effect this. This skill also counts towards your ability to perform Special Moves.

## Training

From 0 - 30 skill you have the option to buy the skill gain from a local Swordsman in cities around the map. After that you need to hold a sword in hand and hit opponents. For more details on training Swordsmanship or other melee skills visit the Melee Training Guide page.

## Weapons

The standard sword class of weapons are primarily designed to chop and slice opponents. As it offers the largest range of weapons to choose from by far, the Power Scrolls required to become a Legendary Swordsman are considered extremely valuable.

Another exclusive bonus to Swordsmen is the Axe weapon class. These add an additional Damage Increase bonus dependant on your character's Lumberjacking skill, though this is typically considered too low to be worth pursuing.

Note that as the Tinkering skill has no Runic Tools, the items it produces are seldom used as primary weapons in combat. On the other hand, the *only*\* swords which may be used with the Poisoning skill are created by Tinkers (the Butcher Knife and the Cleaver).

* Note: ANY weapon can have poison applied to it with poison mastery, and ANY weapon can use Infectious Strike.

## Archery

There are two main types of weapons available to practitioners of **Archery**, bows and crossbows. The former require a good supply of Arrows on hand, while the more technical crossbows fire smaller Bolts at enemies. All of these can be crafted by Bowyers.

Bows are typically slightly faster to fire then crossbows and also usually offer a larger attacking radius. On the other hand, crossbows often pack more punch per bolt and so might be the better choice for a lengthy battle.

The Elven Composite Longbow is the only Archery class weapon that can be used with Poisoning (via Serpent Arrow).

While not technically a weapon, it's worth mentioning that any archer worth his or her salt will be carrying a Quiver with them.

All Archery weapons are Two-Handed Weapons, unless they have the Balanced property. For this reason, when crafting with Runic Tools, you might consider the Lightweight Shortbow.

## Fencing

Fencing weapons are used to stab'n'jab opponents, allowing the user to quickly attack while at the same time maintaining a defense. It is the best melee class available for use with Poisoning.

All items in this category can be made by Blacksmiths, with the exception of the Pitchfork. Pitchforks can now be crated by Tinkers. They can be found in the Tools category of the crafting menu.

## Weapon Modifiers

* Slayer Items

 Ruin
 Might
 Force
 Power
 Vanquishing
 Lengendary

Special Moves

 \* Maces do an extra damage of 3 to 5 points to the victims stamina if a hit is made. Maces also do damage to armor everytime the armor absorbs damage. The amount of damage done to armor is half that of the damage points absorbed by the armor and typically lies in the 1 - 7 points range.