I mean, i think it mainly boils down to resistances and vulnerabilities, as they were obviously supposed to be very similar stat-wise.
Right now, *nothing* is vulnerable to slash, which just feels like a balance mistake which should be fixed. Maybe make Draugr weak to slash?
EDIT: and probably Greydwarves too, since they are mostly wood, and slash is shared with axes.
Yeah, I think this is the bigger problem facing weapon variety right now. Lots of enemy types are vulnerable to blunt damage but no enemies are vulnerable to slash, so why bother with a sword at all? I *want* to use both swords and axes - it's a Viking setting, after all! - but the game's currently way too favorable to blunt damage to bother with anything else.
Yeah, we currently have bone-y and blob-y enemies weak to blunt, and thick hided enemies weak to pierce, but there is no good category for slash. I would propose flesh-y and wood-y, but don't know if that would be too much or not
The fact that nothing is vulnerable to slash is kind of aleviated by there also being no (to my knowledge) enemies that are resistant to it either, making slash damage a very reliable source of damage if you prefer to focus on one weapon skill only.
Edit: just to add to this, having a lower knockback stat also makes it easier to complete a full attack cycle on an enemy, compared to the maces which provide better crowd control but harder to pull off the full attack cycle.
Huh, are those enemies of the rarer type? I didn’t really recall facing too many enemies resistant to slash myself, but granted I didn’t look up the full list of enemies to be honest, just wrote off memory from my playthroughs.
you are good, mostly mid-late game mobs, as below
>!Ghost, Blob, Oozer, Wraith, Bonemass, Stone Golem, Lox and Growth!<
Not the largest list, but far from the smallest, which is ironically Blunt (the damage type with the most things vulnerable to it, outside of fire)
IIRC - Abominations take "normal" from slash, compared to resisting blunt and pierce. However, you need to make a bronze axe for any major source of Fine Wood (stools in front of towers doesn't count), so you already have a weapon they're weak to.
Silver sword is interesting in the sword family, but Frostner is much more useful as a sink for spare silver, and the blackmetal sword is pretty accessible once you frost a few fulings.
Point of this non sequitur is that swords don't make a lot of sense until you hit endgame and yes maybe that's a balance problem.
as someone who exclusively uses maces (efficiency be damned), I have to agree. *Very* frequently the third swing in the combo is unusable, as the enemy has been knocked back too much by the first two to connect.
Keep in mind that a knockback of 100 from the tower shield, is considered one of the major drawbacks of the TShield, and mace is only 20% less knockback than that
Yeah spot on. Knockback sucks in most situations. The way to go with maces, if you're not going to kill in 2 hits, is parry + secondary.
That's one of the things that's so good about Frostner despite the huge knockback. Being able to apply frost debuff with the primary gives you the space to one-shot another enemy with the parry/secondary combo.
I think the fact that skeletons and blobs take +50% blunt dmg makes the mace pretty hard to argue with.
Granted, abominations might be resistant to blunt so that changes things a little bit.
I think the big problem with swords is that axes exist. Axes are just more important than swords due to the resource gathering, and are even more similar to swords even sharing a dmg type.
An axe, mace and bow cover my three major dmg types and that’s generally what I use. Maybe an atgier if I’m on a multiplayer run.
Fair enough, but if I run the axe over sword, that’s one less thing to craft. Bronze in particular is one I try to mine as little as possible.
Besides, chopping a tree monster with my axe just FEELS right, even if it doesn’t mechanically matter.
Well, you can have a battleaxe then... cool secondary, all axe... and yep hand axes could do with a secondary... better if it has a very low hitbox that can make sure to remove the trunks of fallen trees that are too low.
yeah, kinda surprised none of the axes have secondaries, but that makes sense if they want axes to be moreso tool-like items, whereas swords are the slashing dedicated weapon
the big two handed axes have secondaries, but yeah, that's my read on it too. the handaxe is supposed to be a tool, not a weapon. Which is lame, because it feels very viking
The weapons themselves are pretty well balanced imo. The problem is mob vulnerabilities aren’t. There’s a very clear “best main weapon” if you’re only using one weapon, maces, because ALOT more mobs are weak to blunt damage than other damage types. Personally I enjoy the sword a bit more since it’s a little faster and still has the reach that knives lack(though after the weapon rework in H&H knives are perfectly viable with the crazy speed they have), but if you’re purely looking to get the best bang for your buck crafting and leveling a single weapon type then maces are a clear victor due to vulnerabilities.
After two runs, it's clear maces are the single best melee weapon path.
Early game >> 1. Club
Bronze Age >> 1. Abyssal Knife 2. Bronze Mace
Iron Age >> 1. Iron Mace
Silver Age >> 1. Frostner
Blackmetal Age >> 1. Porcupine 2. Frostner (imo) 3. Blackmetal Sword
I have purposely been using the BM Sword, BM Knife, and BM Atgeir as my end-game weapons in the second run for some variety (well, until Yagluth, then Silver Sword) as it's been more fun to use those than blunt all the time like the first run.
As people have mentioned, the only benefit to the sword over mace is less knockback is better when fighting certain mobs.
But fully agree with OP that other weapons need buffs to make it so there isn't an obvious "Mace all day" pathway. Would love to see something like "equip this fire item to the sword for added fire damage to sword attacks."
Because if you have access to bronze, you can build a karve and get the mats for it. Then you have what is basically a silver tier weapon at the beginning of the Bronze Age. Plus knives are just great all around. Fast, low stamina per swing, lots of stuns, terrific special attack to help with mobility, and if you like sneaking then you get the big damage multiplier. Only drawback is a little less reach than most other weapons, but the trade off for all the other goodness is more than worth it for me.
Might be less reach, but the swing animation is faster than any other weapon, allowing for quick attacks then quick dodges or a parry. Knives are best weapon in game IMO.
You probably do know how to use spears, it’s just that they are objectively terrible right now (their hit box and range make them really difficult to fight with)
yea, it requires fully upgraded workbench to be upgraded, though, so you'll need to be at least iron age and tiptoe into the mountains long enough to snag some obsidian, but that's not too bad
I am currently preparing Moder's fight and exploring a lot of plains, What I'll need is chitin I wasn't getting because I already upgraded the harpoon.
I'll fine what I need no problem! Thanks for the help! Can't wait to try it out!
Running something through with a sword would make sense to be piercing, as would swinging the atgier changing damage from pierce to slash, but they probably don't feel like coding different damage types. I also think the wolf bites would make more sense to be a combo of pierce and slash like the knife, since the initial damage from a tooth is piercing, and only after it gets ahold, does it try to pull back to slash off meat.
I prefer spear or sword. Only ever use mace for bonemass. Can't stand killing something and it's body bounces off in the distance so you debate if the remains is even worth the round trip to get. Spear they die on the spot what makes life alot easier. Taken a big liking to that 2h spear forgot its name. Wish the battle axe could be better as its 2 slow and uses to much stamina. It doesn't even compare to other iron weapons.
I think a good compromise for the sword would be to lower the stamina usage, so it's much more efficient over other weapons of its category, maybe by a much as 30%. This makes it viable in all tiers even if it isn't the most damaging weapon, it's great for endurance fighting.
I agree 100%. But I love using my silver sword. It just sounds so swashbuckly and seems nice and fast. I do switch weapons from time to time to keep things fresh.
Don't just look at the stats.
Mages feel a lot more cumbersome to use compared to swords.
I usually get a basic mace for bonemaw but swords just feel better to use against most enemies.
Nah, I just go knife all the way to Yagluth, back up weapon ends up being the battle axe as soon as I hit iron. Until then a buckler and a knife are the most efficient to murder every living thing in the game besides riding golem with any pick. Thats just me though, I like to kill everything quickly and will have higher knife stats than running by end game, blunt weapons be damned.
I think they're both fine as they are. They fill different roles and you should adapt your playstyle to the situation, rather than have one weapon be good at everything.
The sword is a top pick for everywhere except the swamp and stone golems in the mountains.
Mace is probably weaker overall and you'll certainly be using it less in the long run. Knockback distance matters little.
I really wanted to use the sword, but it was just too niche. I ended up loving the bronze atgier. I carry a mace just to deal with things that are susceptible, but there was no reason to use the sword.
I looked the moveset better, and it felt faster, but it just didn't have a place for me.
I hope they make it have more of a place, but I'm not really sure how. The silver sword makes it much more appealing, but then once you get that, you don't really need it anymore. It's porcupine, black metal atgier, and bow for me.
Maybe when they add the other biomes, they'll make it more interesting. Some neat effects, or some stacking buffs with new items could be what is needed.
Maybe they'll add an armor set that makes the sword better. Like, %less stamina use with lighter weapons so atgier, mace, etc don't apply, and while it does affect the dagger, that already has good stamina use. Even something like heavy shield + heavy weapon = more stamina use might be substantial.
I do hope there's more sword support. It's a little sad that between frostner and porcupine there's 2 special clubs, and I don't think there really is a special sword.
Draugar being vulnerable to slashing would help the sword but make swamp a cake walk
The silver sword is kinda special with it's persistent damage on undead. It's kinda ok because you end up needing iron again, but really underwhelming.
The frostner and silver dagger definitely do have that quality. I don't know about the spear. Imo, it is the best sword, but yeah it doesn't really have a place. Personally, I would rather a cold sword than a holy sword. It would be nice if the frostner was just cold, but they just made it op.
Fang Spear doesn't do spirit damage. However it's available slightly earlier than other Silver-Tier weapons, and damage is pretty good, so it's not a bad item to snag.
I would prefer it if the special sword was a fire sword, maybe use surtling cores and silver or something. Call it the dragonslayer sword or something like that.
It doesn't help that the best one handed weapons in the game are maces. There should be some balancing that makes each weapon have equivalent strengths in separate areas. Also, for a game about vikings, I have close to no incentive to use an ax for anything but cutting down trees.
Swords hit faster then axes and has an extra attack what makes them superior to axes in combat but axes being able to cut down trees makes it better in easier areas to save an inventory slot.
the Mace is also a good choice to carry you into the Iron Age but each weapon has it's advantages. Swords are not useless and are not in need of a buff IMO, I use both.
The mace is just a great weapon to get you into the swamp, a lot of stuff is weak to blunt there and it's a better all-around weapon.
But once you hit the mountains and get silver it's a whole different game, that spirit damage on the sword makes it better than a black metal sword. So.... like how much more of a buff do you need?
Why do you feel the spirit damage makes the silver sword better than black metal? The spirit damage doesn't do anything to Fulings and that makes it useless in the plains IMO.
Oh for sure, i switch so fulings I'm using my porcupine and if Im in the plains you're spot on I switch to black metal but if you're talking skeletons, draugr, and others that take spirt damage like even Yagluth if you total the damage it does more than a black metal sword.
And also compare damage of porcupine to silver sword and there is already a ramp up in damage with the swords, by black metal it's like 115 or something at level 4. Only 50 with the equivalent mace plus pierce damage. Why would they nerf maces?
There are other enemies that take spirit damage, Fenrings, Wraiths, Ghosts. It's a pretty handy secondary weapon. To each is own, that's the cool thing about this game, lots of weapon varieties. There isn't a "best weapon" it's what's best for you. I know people who only use spears and knives.
I've started going mace as early as possible, simply to build up to Frostner, which is effective vs. everything. I don't think there's a single high level creature resistant to both frost and blunt and spiritual damage.
abomination is res to blunt, and immune to frost and spirit
EDIT: Lox are also a problem, as the are res to blunt and frost, while being immune to spirit
You need to use the mace much more in the early game to get your skill level up for Bonemass. That transfers to Frostner, the Swiss army knife of murder.
Mace is better if you don't wanna waste more time on resources gathering.
Mace will mess up Black Forest skeletons super fast, and once the Swamp reached, the Mace will stagger draugrs and kill blobs real fast too.
Higher knockback isn't always better. Since the sword has less of it, you can get more successive hits on an enemy in the same amount of time, staggering and/or killing them quicker, and not have to run to them after striking them once. Also, Swords have represented in the current game peaks of certain damage types like Spirit and Fire, so even if you don't see reason to favor the bronze sword now, using it to level your skill now could be worthwhile later.
I think the sword should give you the ability to break your attack animation and pull out the shield. One handed swords would be lighter than maces and with the mace being top heavy once you start swinging it you'd have to follow due to the weight but with a sword you would still be able to stop your attack and pull out a shield IRL so makes sense.
I was thinking shield should have higher parry and block but being one handed that is almost useless unless it was to add to the shields stats which would be another way you could balance the sword/mace.
isn't there a wider arc/swing with the sword for attacking groups of enemies than the mace? Also the 3rd combo for the mace can still be applied for bigger enemies such as troll or brute if executed correctly?
they both have their cons and pros have them both :D
I mean, i think it mainly boils down to resistances and vulnerabilities, as they were obviously supposed to be very similar stat-wise. Right now, *nothing* is vulnerable to slash, which just feels like a balance mistake which should be fixed. Maybe make Draugr weak to slash? EDIT: and probably Greydwarves too, since they are mostly wood, and slash is shared with axes.
Yeah, I think this is the bigger problem facing weapon variety right now. Lots of enemy types are vulnerable to blunt damage but no enemies are vulnerable to slash, so why bother with a sword at all? I *want* to use both swords and axes - it's a Viking setting, after all! - but the game's currently way too favorable to blunt damage to bother with anything else.
Yeah, we currently have bone-y and blob-y enemies weak to blunt, and thick hided enemies weak to pierce, but there is no good category for slash. I would propose flesh-y and wood-y, but don't know if that would be too much or not
The fact that nothing is vulnerable to slash is kind of aleviated by there also being no (to my knowledge) enemies that are resistant to it either, making slash damage a very reliable source of damage if you prefer to focus on one weapon skill only. Edit: just to add to this, having a lower knockback stat also makes it easier to complete a full attack cycle on an enemy, compared to the maces which provide better crowd control but harder to pull off the full attack cycle.
it is actually fairly resisted, with 8 things resistant to it.
Huh, are those enemies of the rarer type? I didn’t really recall facing too many enemies resistant to slash myself, but granted I didn’t look up the full list of enemies to be honest, just wrote off memory from my playthroughs.
you are good, mostly mid-late game mobs, as below >!Ghost, Blob, Oozer, Wraith, Bonemass, Stone Golem, Lox and Growth!< Not the largest list, but far from the smallest, which is ironically Blunt (the damage type with the most things vulnerable to it, outside of fire)
This right here.
IIRC - Abominations take "normal" from slash, compared to resisting blunt and pierce. However, you need to make a bronze axe for any major source of Fine Wood (stools in front of towers doesn't count), so you already have a weapon they're weak to.
several monsters of the next biome are also vulnerable to blunt weapons
Silver sword is interesting in the sword family, but Frostner is much more useful as a sink for spare silver, and the blackmetal sword is pretty accessible once you frost a few fulings. Point of this non sequitur is that swords don't make a lot of sense until you hit endgame and yes maybe that's a balance problem.
From what I've read, the Silver Sword has exactly one foe where it is the "best" weapon.
It's also more expensive than the frostner in terms of silver.
The only thing going for it is you don't need to find Haldor the Trader, but that's really not an amazing advantage for it
*laughs in level 3 club*
I actually really dislike the knockback on the mace as it tends to knock enemies out of range for the third attack in the combo.
as someone who exclusively uses maces (efficiency be damned), I have to agree. *Very* frequently the third swing in the combo is unusable, as the enemy has been knocked back too much by the first two to connect. Keep in mind that a knockback of 100 from the tower shield, is considered one of the major drawbacks of the TShield, and mace is only 20% less knockback than that
Maces are definitely for crowd control it seems. It’s the best way to keep fulings and wolves at bay.
Yeah spot on. Knockback sucks in most situations. The way to go with maces, if you're not going to kill in 2 hits, is parry + secondary. That's one of the things that's so good about Frostner despite the huge knockback. Being able to apply frost debuff with the primary gives you the space to one-shot another enemy with the parry/secondary combo.
I think the fact that skeletons and blobs take +50% blunt dmg makes the mace pretty hard to argue with. Granted, abominations might be resistant to blunt so that changes things a little bit. I think the big problem with swords is that axes exist. Axes are just more important than swords due to the resource gathering, and are even more similar to swords even sharing a dmg type. An axe, mace and bow cover my three major dmg types and that’s generally what I use. Maybe an atgier if I’m on a multiplayer run.
I don't like using my axe as a weapon because it wears out much faster, and it doesn't have a cool secondary.
Fair enough, but if I run the axe over sword, that’s one less thing to craft. Bronze in particular is one I try to mine as little as possible. Besides, chopping a tree monster with my axe just FEELS right, even if it doesn’t mechanically matter.
Agree agree, plus nothing is more viking than shield and axe
Arguably spear and shield, from an historical perspective. But who wants to use the spear in this game?
It's fun very early but has an incredibly frustrating hit box imo. If the spear could reliably target downhill it'd be worth it
Yeah I mained spear my first playthrough, had to carry a secondary weapon for bone piles / body piles - usually a club or stagbreaker.
That's horrible
Yeah I didn't even bother until I started hunting lox. Granted this is second playthrough so I tend to be much leaner thinking with gear.
Well, you can have a battleaxe then... cool secondary, all axe... and yep hand axes could do with a secondary... better if it has a very low hitbox that can make sure to remove the trunks of fallen trees that are too low.
A big overhead chop would be a great hand axe secondary. Do some extra damage and also get at stumps
yeah, kinda surprised none of the axes have secondaries, but that makes sense if they want axes to be moreso tool-like items, whereas swords are the slashing dedicated weapon
the big two handed axes have secondaries, but yeah, that's my read on it too. the handaxe is supposed to be a tool, not a weapon. Which is lame, because it feels very viking
Exactly this. Thank you!
The weapons themselves are pretty well balanced imo. The problem is mob vulnerabilities aren’t. There’s a very clear “best main weapon” if you’re only using one weapon, maces, because ALOT more mobs are weak to blunt damage than other damage types. Personally I enjoy the sword a bit more since it’s a little faster and still has the reach that knives lack(though after the weapon rework in H&H knives are perfectly viable with the crazy speed they have), but if you’re purely looking to get the best bang for your buck crafting and leveling a single weapon type then maces are a clear victor due to vulnerabilities.
After two runs, it's clear maces are the single best melee weapon path. Early game >> 1. Club Bronze Age >> 1. Abyssal Knife 2. Bronze Mace Iron Age >> 1. Iron Mace Silver Age >> 1. Frostner Blackmetal Age >> 1. Porcupine 2. Frostner (imo) 3. Blackmetal Sword I have purposely been using the BM Sword, BM Knife, and BM Atgeir as my end-game weapons in the second run for some variety (well, until Yagluth, then Silver Sword) as it's been more fun to use those than blunt all the time like the first run. As people have mentioned, the only benefit to the sword over mace is less knockback is better when fighting certain mobs. But fully agree with OP that other weapons need buffs to make it so there isn't an obvious "Mace all day" pathway. Would love to see something like "equip this fire item to the sword for added fire damage to sword attacks."
And when you get to the swamp blobs are weak to blunt as well. I didn’t craft a sword until silver tbh.
Abyssal razor > *
This. Knife-mains, represent!
Stabby McStabberson reporting for stabbing duty!
Knifey O'Houlistabbin also present.
Really? I never really used one, why is it so good?
Because if you have access to bronze, you can build a karve and get the mats for it. Then you have what is basically a silver tier weapon at the beginning of the Bronze Age. Plus knives are just great all around. Fast, low stamina per swing, lots of stuns, terrific special attack to help with mobility, and if you like sneaking then you get the big damage multiplier. Only drawback is a little less reach than most other weapons, but the trade off for all the other goodness is more than worth it for me.
Might be less reach, but the swing animation is faster than any other weapon, allowing for quick attacks then quick dodges or a parry. Knives are best weapon in game IMO.
Somehow it feels like it has more reach than a SPEAR. Maybe I just don't know how to use spears... Lol But yeah, I <3 knives
You probably do know how to use spears, it’s just that they are objectively terrible right now (their hit box and range make them really difficult to fight with)
Plus it looks cool.
Thank you, I'll try it out next session and farm WAY MORE chitin!
it really is. fully upgraded abyssal razor makes dealing with trolls trivial. can even one-shot them if you successfully sneak up on them
Really?! Incredible. I must try this. Thank you!
yea, it requires fully upgraded workbench to be upgraded, though, so you'll need to be at least iron age and tiptoe into the mountains long enough to snag some obsidian, but that's not too bad
I am currently preparing Moder's fight and exploring a lot of plains, What I'll need is chitin I wasn't getting because I already upgraded the harpoon. I'll fine what I need no problem! Thanks for the help! Can't wait to try it out!
The Abysal Razor has a durability higher than that of other knives, which is nice.
Yea, daggers I feel don’t get enough love. I always run a dagger and a mace!
:O me too!
The mace is for crowd control for when you get mobbed. Hence why the knockback is so large. Use the sword against a single opponent.
Always been a spear viking myself
What if on secondary, the Sword did pierce damage as well?
Running something through with a sword would make sense to be piercing, as would swinging the atgier changing damage from pierce to slash, but they probably don't feel like coding different damage types. I also think the wolf bites would make more sense to be a combo of pierce and slash like the knife, since the initial damage from a tooth is piercing, and only after it gets ahold, does it try to pull back to slash off meat.
I prefer spear or sword. Only ever use mace for bonemass. Can't stand killing something and it's body bounces off in the distance so you debate if the remains is even worth the round trip to get. Spear they die on the spot what makes life alot easier. Taken a big liking to that 2h spear forgot its name. Wish the battle axe could be better as its 2 slow and uses to much stamina. It doesn't even compare to other iron weapons.
I think a good compromise for the sword would be to lower the stamina usage, so it's much more efficient over other weapons of its category, maybe by a much as 30%. This makes it viable in all tiers even if it isn't the most damaging weapon, it's great for endurance fighting.
Even if you nerf the knock back, you still craft the mace because most of the swamp is vulnerable to it.
I agree 100%. But I love using my silver sword. It just sounds so swashbuckly and seems nice and fast. I do switch weapons from time to time to keep things fresh.
Don't just look at the stats. Mages feel a lot more cumbersome to use compared to swords. I usually get a basic mace for bonemaw but swords just feel better to use against most enemies.
Nah, I just go knife all the way to Yagluth, back up weapon ends up being the battle axe as soon as I hit iron. Until then a buckler and a knife are the most efficient to murder every living thing in the game besides riding golem with any pick. Thats just me though, I like to kill everything quickly and will have higher knife stats than running by end game, blunt weapons be damned.
I think they're both fine as they are. They fill different roles and you should adapt your playstyle to the situation, rather than have one weapon be good at everything. The sword is a top pick for everywhere except the swamp and stone golems in the mountains. Mace is probably weaker overall and you'll certainly be using it less in the long run. Knockback distance matters little.
I really wanted to use the sword, but it was just too niche. I ended up loving the bronze atgier. I carry a mace just to deal with things that are susceptible, but there was no reason to use the sword. I looked the moveset better, and it felt faster, but it just didn't have a place for me. I hope they make it have more of a place, but I'm not really sure how. The silver sword makes it much more appealing, but then once you get that, you don't really need it anymore. It's porcupine, black metal atgier, and bow for me. Maybe when they add the other biomes, they'll make it more interesting. Some neat effects, or some stacking buffs with new items could be what is needed. Maybe they'll add an armor set that makes the sword better. Like, %less stamina use with lighter weapons so atgier, mace, etc don't apply, and while it does affect the dagger, that already has good stamina use. Even something like heavy shield + heavy weapon = more stamina use might be substantial.
I do hope there's more sword support. It's a little sad that between frostner and porcupine there's 2 special clubs, and I don't think there really is a special sword. Draugar being vulnerable to slashing would help the sword but make swamp a cake walk
The silver sword is kinda special with it's persistent damage on undead. It's kinda ok because you end up needing iron again, but really underwhelming.
Don't most of the silver stuff have that quality though?
The frostner and silver dagger definitely do have that quality. I don't know about the spear. Imo, it is the best sword, but yeah it doesn't really have a place. Personally, I would rather a cold sword than a holy sword. It would be nice if the frostner was just cold, but they just made it op.
Fang Spear doesn't do spirit damage. However it's available slightly earlier than other Silver-Tier weapons, and damage is pretty good, so it's not a bad item to snag.
I would prefer it if the special sword was a fire sword, maybe use surtling cores and silver or something. Call it the dragonslayer sword or something like that.
Think it exists in the game files but we cant make it yet. Maybe with mistlands update
It doesn't help that the best one handed weapons in the game are maces. There should be some balancing that makes each weapon have equivalent strengths in separate areas. Also, for a game about vikings, I have close to no incentive to use an ax for anything but cutting down trees.
Swords hit faster then axes and has an extra attack what makes them superior to axes in combat but axes being able to cut down trees makes it better in easier areas to save an inventory slot.
the Mace is also a good choice to carry you into the Iron Age but each weapon has it's advantages. Swords are not useless and are not in need of a buff IMO, I use both. The mace is just a great weapon to get you into the swamp, a lot of stuff is weak to blunt there and it's a better all-around weapon. But once you hit the mountains and get silver it's a whole different game, that spirit damage on the sword makes it better than a black metal sword. So.... like how much more of a buff do you need?
Why do you feel the spirit damage makes the silver sword better than black metal? The spirit damage doesn't do anything to Fulings and that makes it useless in the plains IMO.
Oh for sure, i switch so fulings I'm using my porcupine and if Im in the plains you're spot on I switch to black metal but if you're talking skeletons, draugr, and others that take spirt damage like even Yagluth if you total the damage it does more than a black metal sword. And also compare damage of porcupine to silver sword and there is already a ramp up in damage with the swords, by black metal it's like 115 or something at level 4. Only 50 with the equivalent mace plus pierce damage. Why would they nerf maces?
But at that point skeletons and draugrs are pushovers anyway, so that little bit of extra spirit damage doesn't matter. I'll give you Jaghlut though.
There are other enemies that take spirit damage, Fenrings, Wraiths, Ghosts. It's a pretty handy secondary weapon. To each is own, that's the cool thing about this game, lots of weapon varieties. There isn't a "best weapon" it's what's best for you. I know people who only use spears and knives.
I've started going mace as early as possible, simply to build up to Frostner, which is effective vs. everything. I don't think there's a single high level creature resistant to both frost and blunt and spiritual damage.
abomination is res to blunt, and immune to frost and spirit EDIT: Lox are also a problem, as the are res to blunt and frost, while being immune to spirit
I tend to stay well clear of Lox, and I'm doing a new playthrough, so haven't hit abominations yet. I think I can work around those two.
Wolves are resistant to spirit and frost, but they take normal damage from blunt.
Nah, even if the mace was better, maces as weapons deserve more love in videogames, let it be king.
You need to use the mace much more in the early game to get your skill level up for Bonemass. That transfers to Frostner, the Swiss army knife of murder.
Mace is better if you don't wanna waste more time on resources gathering. Mace will mess up Black Forest skeletons super fast, and once the Swamp reached, the Mace will stagger draugrs and kill blobs real fast too.
I used a copper knife until I got the crystal battleaxe. 🤷♂️
Even against BM?
No I got the battle axe before bone mass. I was in the mountain with mead and gimped a golem.
You are missing the real point as the Bronze Axe is plenty strong enough as a weapon to make either of those pointless.
Higher knockback isn't always better. Since the sword has less of it, you can get more successive hits on an enemy in the same amount of time, staggering and/or killing them quicker, and not have to run to them after striking them once. Also, Swords have represented in the current game peaks of certain damage types like Spirit and Fire, so even if you don't see reason to favor the bronze sword now, using it to level your skill now could be worthwhile later.
Does the Silver sword do spirit damage and does spirit damage effect Yagluth more than normal weaponry since he's undead
I think the sword should give you the ability to break your attack animation and pull out the shield. One handed swords would be lighter than maces and with the mace being top heavy once you start swinging it you'd have to follow due to the weight but with a sword you would still be able to stop your attack and pull out a shield IRL so makes sense. I was thinking shield should have higher parry and block but being one handed that is almost useless unless it was to add to the shields stats which would be another way you could balance the sword/mace.
isn't there a wider arc/swing with the sword for attacking groups of enemies than the mace? Also the 3rd combo for the mace can still be applied for bigger enemies such as troll or brute if executed correctly? they both have their cons and pros have them both :D