Swordmastery and Greatswords!

There are 'Greatswords' Mitch, but they're the same speed-based stat as a claymore. The only reason everyone is wielding a Claymore is because that's the one that has the most designs/Amethyst has only been crafting them.

@Mitch while considering all I did was agree with you, then site what Ishap said, not my own opinion of it I don't see where you are comming from. But since you asked so nicely for an opinion 5 afflictions in 1 hit sounds totally okay, and not op at all.

I found mana regeneration to be very fast...so unless you want to use a SM skill on EVERY balance, you're pretty much good for mana as long as you have a decent pool in your sword. Sure, you won't be able to spam eclipse or attacks that use 40 magic per hit, but for decent attacks + elemental bursts on each off-hand balance you should not run out of mana.

(quoting Mitch in italics b/c forum quote is broken)

Balancing device? Balancing what... our magic pool is 100 magic and regenerates SLOWLY every sword move requires 20+ magic and offhand is 15 magic? why would you intentionally limit how much we can push out then make it near impossible to land a hit by restricting us to spam fighting?

I suspect the admins have an answer to that; restricting swordmasters to speed is a major decision that I can't imagine was an oversight. Like I said, I myself don't have an opinion or answer to that question.

Another option for balancing would be to reform as other Ire muds did. Remove the "basic" stat preference of each weapon and make them RP basis. This would mean someone could have a "fast" longsword or a "precise" saber. It'd only take to the current weapons decay (which for those without shops and trunks will be fast enough) to balance out. Making all weapons have a generic base.

I'm not in favor of that largely because my system calibrates defenses in part based on weapon type wielded by an opponent. It isn't that big of a deal, though, so I wouldn't cry too much if they did that. There is something to be said from an immersion standpoint in knowing that an axe causes a lot of damage, though, for instance.

 
Option 2 would be to increase the base damage/precision of two handed weapons as the wielder in the case of hunting/brutality loses the offhand damage. This would also offset the precision issue by allowing for a slightly more customizable weapon

I thought 2 handed weapons already had increased stats across the board compared to 1 handed weapons? Is it actually just the primary stat that is better?

In any event, sure. I feel like part of the reason they went claymores for swordmasters is because no soldiers were using any 2-handed weapons (or at least not many) before that; dual wielding is clearly the way to go overall.

Seems simpler.

Yeah, I personally like the idea of all weapon types (with the expception of 1H versus 2H) having the same potential statwise. I think it'd be much cooler to see people wielding whatever they feel fits their characters, as opposed to just seeing the same weapon setups again and again on every soldier or rogue. It would be a further avenue for self-expression and thus RP, and anyway there's always gonna be a 'best' weapon, min-max wise, if the stats remain different. The others won't get used. Diversity = good.

Anticipating the stats of a weapon based on its type does matter system-side, at least some of the time, so it isn't quite accurate to say that it would affect nothing but the string.

I don't agree that there is always be a best weapon with the current setup. For instance, while soldiers often go saber/longsword or longsword/longsword for solid overall performance, an axe or warhammer is better if the soldier wants high short-term dps with low adrenaline cost (especially if they want warlord points, as it is easier to gaurantee the final blow).

Anyway, as I've said before on this topic, I don't really care that much, and it'd certainly be fun to have lots of different design adjectives. However, I do feel it is fitting to know by looking at someone what kind of fight they're prepared for. It seems rather unsatisfying to think of an axe as an especially fast or precise weapon, for instance.