So, some are easy. Magic Users - Staff - they boost magic power Stealth/Rogue - Dagger Smithy - Thrown Tinkering - Archery But what about axe, maces and swords?
Axes are some of the best weapons for straight damage, and high from the tree is awesome if you intend to do mostly melee attacks. So I would say: Melee-focused build : Axes Unarmed gives some nice defenses, at the cost of lower melee damage eventually. Being able to use two shields is also a subtle buff to defense. So I think: Tank builds : Unarmed Sword items have pretty high damage, but the sword tree itself gives less damage than other trees - but it gives a ton of , especially when you dual-wield! Dual-wielding swords is one of the most exciting builds in the game, IMHO. So: Counter-Attack (swashbuckling, rogue/warrior hybrids) : Swords What are maces best at? The have good knockback, but not as good as Unarmed. They deal damage, but not as much as axes. The only real advantage Maces have over other weapons (off the top of my head) is that they have some really good easy-to-craft recipes at lowish levels. Maces also shares the best AoE template with Staff weapons... so it's just pretty middle-of-the-road.
^^^ Maces get Pedantic Beating which I believe does a lot of damage. Personally, the two new ones are superior to everything IMO. Polearms give a ton of which is great for warriors who want to throw stuff, as well as lots of range (which warriors don't have much of) and easily-craftable polearms. Daggers, while short in supply, have good stances (+25 / anyone?), a really good proc that scales off of which the tree gives lots of, and mana-free thaumites (although since you probably aren't a mage you won't get their full effect). Not to mention that 45 dagger. So, in general: Warrior: Polearms Rogue: Knives/Swords (swords for ) Mage: Shields (log)/Staves
Dual-Wielding Polearms gives you 10 pretty soon, which is pretty good. In combination with smithing, they probably are the best when it comes to raw damage output right now, especially when you consider the Victory Stance. Works best for a Juggernaut-Type. That means for me to just waltz through everything with high defenses and resistances So, if you just want to stomp everything to death, use polearms.
Staves are good for ranged characters in general, so not only mages but also ranged rogues and (somewhat) warriors.
Polearm + Shield + swiss defense stance. To offset that loss, use geology's first skill. My block, at level 5, was over 65. Barely get hurt at all in melee.
I'm running with a Clockworkknight, and I figured that with Crossbows as my mean damage dealer, maces are good for knocking back enemies.
I totally agree that Pole Arms are great for melee. Even with VERY low-tiered weapons dual-wielded, and fully skilled in Pole Arms, I was kicking major butt. You cannot underestimate the importance of the skill's AE and ranged attacks, as well as the stats. Oh, and it has knock-back as well.
The key is to maximize Nimbleness and Caddishness. So Rogue-archetype skills as much as possible! Swords, Dual-Wield, Burglary, Archeology, Piracy, Big Game Hunter are the core skills. Burglary, Archeology, and BGH will give you MASSIVE XP boosts, which get you up to level 12 or so ASAP - when your will finally get high enough to let you kick ass. One problem (not a huge problem but...) is that Dodge chance comes before counter-chance, so too much will actually reduce your damage output. Consider Magnatronic Plate eventually... For the last skill you have several good options. Killer Vegan is classic, Tourist or Demonologist would also work well. Rogue Scientist might be a nice option as well - though you can't really afford to put many points into it for a good while. Berserk gives good , which you will generally be lacking with this build.
Wouldn't Vegan negatively interact with Big Game Hunter? Unless you carry around a crossbow to kill animals. I'd like to try Tourist out. How would you skill this (skilling order) for Tourist?
Vegan doesn't really interact badly with BGH at all. 80% of the reason you take BGH is for the +16 experience on animal kills. Vegans still kill animals - they just do it at range, or when they can afford to live with massive debuffs for a while. Tourist is a generalist skill - a bit of regen, vision, escape, money... But you already get most of that from Burglary. I'd order them based on what you fear most. Do you think Ninja Vanish, Move in Mysterious Ways, and Mists of Corsair might not be enough escape options? Go for Tourist. Do you want to have enough Block to reduce damage further? Demonologist. Do you need more damage? Berserk or Vegan.
Does Berserk's Killing Blow still last until you actually *attack* attack? Because people used to use that to guarantee all of their Counters were crits (and with +5). Duel Swords + Piracy + Rings of Iron Thorns + Killing Blow + space bar so you don't lose the buff
I'd say Maces have a survivability aspect (knockbacks, AoE attacks) and a utility aspect (largely the AoE attack which can move/destroy walls, altars, etc) that neither swords nor axes have. I stick with them because of that, though I think in terms of choices both maces and axes pale in comparison to swords.
The thing with axes and clockwork knight is based on a single weapon: Clockwork ravager. It can proc clockwork threshing(which is a proc that clockwork knight also has), dual wielding a pair of them, with clockwork knight and you've got 3 chances for any attack to proc another attack. If you want maximum silly attack stacking, you're going to need multiple weapon skills though: clockwork knight, axes, polearms, daggers, unarmed. (Axes is optional... but you'll be wielding axes). Threshing x3, extra dagger, victory stance, nice combo.
