Choosing Your Weapon

Warrior Class

Warriors can choose between swords, axes and hammers.

Swords

Swords are the Swordmaster's specialist weapon; SM skills can only be used when a sword is equipped. Swords have the longest reach and fastest speed out of all Warrior weapons, with balanced attack, critical chance and paralyse and stun chances, being a balance between the destructive power of the axe and the special attack chance of the hammer. A decent weapon overall, and can deal with mobs and bosses equally well.

Axes

Axes and hammers are the Mercenary's specialist weapons. Axes have the greatest attack and best side-to-side range, making it ideal for quickly dispatching mobs. It has lower critical, paralyse and stun chances as compared to the sword, as well as a slightly slower attack speed, but makes up for it with the increased attack power. Can be formidable in the hands of a good player when paired with the Mercenary's more damaging skills.

Hammers

Hammers are the weakest and slowest of the 3, but have much higher paralyse and stun chances, as well as an automatic juggle ability. While it doesn't work very well on monstrous bosses, it is more than adequate against humanoid bosses and in PvP, and is the key to the infinite juggle combo (I'm not a Merc player so I'm not very clear on this, but you can try checking other threads in the forum for details). It it difficult to use at best, and is best left to slightly more advanced players - there are easier ways to stunlock and deal more damage, although the hammer is one of the more impressive methods.

Archer Class

All of the Archer's weapons have some range to them, just a matter of degree. The three bows are the shortbow, the longbow and the crossbow.

Shortbows

The greatest difference is in their gameplay, not so much in their stats. The shortbow can be considered the basic weapon, with repeated attacks at the same rate if the normal attack button is held down. Is best for running and gunning, and recommended for most beginner archer players as the easiest to handle. It's the Acrobat's only specialist weapon as well, so you might want to get a little practice going up close and personal in preparation for class advancement. Has no delay in between attacks; they come out consistently.

Logbows

The longbow and crossbow are again, on opposite sides of the spectrum. The Longbow is the Bowmaster's specialist weapon (I'm not too sure about the crossbow) and has the highest range of all three weapons at approximately 7 metres. Attacks in groups of 3 shots - the first two shot are around the same speed as the shortbow, but there is a slight pause before the 3rd shot is released: this has a piercing effect and is one of the Archer's only sources of mob damage. Not very good because monsters rarely come in straight lines or sufficiently large mobs for the piercing effect to be useful, and on the whole I prefer the shortbow despite the range.

Crossbows

The crossbow is the fastest of the 3 weapons. It's almost like a machinegun set on burst mode: 3 shots at a time, with a really short pause after each set. The 3 shots come out extremely quickly, and the pause is only slightly longer than the interval between the shortbow's shots. The trouble is each shot deals 33% of the overall damage, so defense is applied thrice - not very good for damage. Still good for interrupting enemy actions though, which rescues it somewhat, and ranks it a little higher than the longbow in my book.

Cleric Class

The cleric is rather unique in that his weapons have a clear difference. He can wield maces, flails or wands.

Maces and Flails

Maces and flails are Paladin specialist weapons, and make the cleric more melee oriented. Maces are quicker, hit 5 times and have a higher critical chance, while flails are slightly slower, have higher paralyse and stun chances and tend to clear mobs more quickly. Both are equally decent in my book: I have a slight preference for flails due to the wider attack radius (and the fact that things go flying like in the LOTR movie prologue) but ultimately it's a matter of style to you. Beginners are better off with the mace because the hits come out uniform, while there is a slight variation between the speed of the flail hits due to the twirling animations, so it makes landing flail hits a little harder to judge in scattered scenarios, but if you want to try the flail out the first few dungeons are perfect for getting the hang of it. If I'm not wrong, both weapons have 5 hit combos.

Wands

Wands are Priest specialist weapons, and are much weaker physically than the maces and flails, but it makes up by adding to Magic Attack. The attacks are also somewhat different: the first strike summons a bolt of lightning, followed by two physical hits with the wand, then a large stream of lightning as the final hit. Be warned, for the final hit must be charged momentarily and you are left open while using it, so if you are surrounded do not try it. Much much harder to use in melee than the other 2 weapons, but decent in a magic-based cleric build, and those wishing to play Priests have no real say in the matter. The consolation is that Priests shouldn't need to depend on weapons, so tote around your preferred weapon until the advancement.

Sorceress Class

Sorceresses are unique in that their secondary weapon choice is more important for the stat boosts than for the attacks. Furthermore, all advancements retain the ability to use all of the Sorceress's secondary weapons, so there is no such consideration here.

Books and Crystal Balls

Books add to your INT stat, and hence are more valuable in a pure INT build, whereas Crystal Balls add directly to MA. crystal Balls therefore enhance damage dealing at the cost of magic defence, MP and MP recovery, while books are much more balanced. It's your own call. The secondary animations are; a slap with the Book, while the crystal ball twirls around you. In earlier levels, at least until you obtain Shockwave and Counter Spell, the crystal ball is very recommended because it has a valuable knockback effect on mobs, and can be used almost infinitely.

Voodoo Dolls

The voodoo doll is the poor cousin, It enhances MP recovery, and summons a dark shadow to temporarily swipe at mobs in front of you. Slow, and not much point - stat wise, the book is better, while attack wise, the ball is better. Use it if you want to, but be warned that you're not going to get very much utility out of it, even for a Sorceress weapon.

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- dragonnestsource.com/../7508-weapon-guide.html

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