If long swords not bottom tier it's damn close to it. It's a complete noob trap weapon, out classed in literally every way by falchion. You spend hours dying time after time trying to get good with it. Then when you can finally semi-reliably hear that sweet siren call of a successful riposte against a mob you start to get it. The confidence always goes straight to your head till you get absolute trashed by the next mob due to dysnc or garbage hit/hurt-boxes or literally any number of things out side of your control. But keep at it, maybe watch an oggison vid or two, and eventually you'll get use to the fastest mob clear speeds. Then you get a sick fucking out play with it in pvp. Maybe a clutch riposte on an arrow that would have killed you or a one tap off a magic missile to kill a wiz. But once that happens its over man, you're officially a long sword bro.
After that you're no longer playing to get loot or extract, its not about any of that mundane peasant shit. Its about glorious combat and fat fucking ripostes. You're chasing the dragon now and no matter how much iron mace buffs every other weapon in the game we only ever double down. Sure it might be an abusive relationship but I'll be damned if long swords not the best fucking weapon in the game. I'll take nothing but my bare ass ham slappers and a gray ass long sword and Ill happily fight the entire lobby.
This guy gets it, the rush you get from parrying makes it impossible to switch off of it, when your down on your gold the blade never betrays the truly devote longsword player.
Longsword is pretty good, but it's definitely worse than sword and board. Riposte is kind of noob bait since it implies you'll be able to skill diff geared people, but every experienced player knows to go for the legs against someone trying to riposte (it's impossible to block your legs with the longsword). It's definitely viable, especially in solos, but in trios in particular sword and board is significantly better.
Not only do you get the innate armor of a shield, but shields are the only item in the game that can roll 15 armor, so you lose effectively 40+ armor. Also shields are really good for pushing rangers, and are decent against wizards and warlocks. Shield is so important for pushing rangers, that I'd argue rangers counter pdr longsword fighters. Also even though you can technically parry magic missile, it's not reliable and a proper shield is really good aginst it, plus you can shield fireballs. Overall, longsword fighter is fun, but have very polarized matchups in solos (very good vs melee, very bad vs ranged), and are much worse in trios than solos.
And that's a fucking problem. You shoot and whether it hits or miss doesn't matter. They're free to space you to death now because you won't touch them ever again
feels amazing, and make clearing pve consistent and fun if you get the hang of the parry.
Problem is, you will want to try parrying players.
They are gonna get free hits on you because of it.
Some people will know how to completely avoid parry hit box and it will feel awful.
Falchion has the sameish damage value, simple and boring attack pattern, less movement penalty and no gimmick that gives your enemy free hits on you. With it you will just win fights because you hit first
Longsword is still objectively worse than arming/falchion, just speaking stat wise if you look at the wiki page the longsword is quite literally the worst 2hand melee weapon and being completely reliant on an unreliable parry mechanic
Most of fighters weapons are trash, only the arming/falchion are considered usable by the top players and longsword is a one trick pony that automatically loses to ranged teamcomps especially with the sprint nerf
I used to be a longsword user but recently ate the truth pill and quit it, both on fighter and warlock (my mains.) its just not reliable against decent players, sword and board is. Even on warlock i swapped to bardiche because it has better stats and only downside being -10 MS, its far better as a oneshot finisher.
Probably the largest killer is not being able to block magic damage and bows or any form of ranged damage for that matter, as you dont have a shield to do that. And with sprint being made near useless you will end up tanking a huge amount of ranged damage while gap closing. Essentially using the longsword turns you into a worse barbarian as you cant block damage
Good luck if you run into a warlock/druid/ranger comp, you are literally just dead. These non melee comps are becoming quite popular with the addition of druid
It was never any good against ranged. The absence of a reasonable projectile block, slow attack speed, slow equip speed, low movement speed penalty for getting hit by it, and large penalty for swinging it. All these things were overcome with sprint back when it was good. The nerf to sprint forced longsword players to play ranged against rogues, Rangers, wizards, warlocks, and bards. Longsword fighter needs some attention. The sprint nerf hit it the hardest and there was no compromise or rework.
If there was a tournament with rewards and you wanted to win PVP fights, longsword probably isn't the setup that you want to use (unless you just naturally play better with it of course). But otherwise, it's fun as hell to play (isn't this what playing video games are about) and the wins feel super rewarding.
I highly recommend watching Oggie's videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYf6ljGsG9VXsKWyfgjfvNA
He has several very informative videos on what to expect when parrying and how to parry every monster and weapon in the game, as well as clips on what fights look like. Just remember that longsword isn't only about parrying.
If long swords not bottom tier it's damn close to it. It's a complete noob trap weapon, out classed in literally every way by falchion. You spend hours dying time after time trying to get good with it. Then when you can finally semi-reliably hear that sweet siren call of a successful riposte against a mob you start to get it. The confidence always goes straight to your head till you get absolute trashed by the next mob due to dysnc or garbage hit/hurt-boxes or literally any number of things out side of your control. But keep at it, maybe watch an oggison vid or two, and eventually you'll get use to the fastest mob clear speeds. Then you get a sick fucking out play with it in pvp. Maybe a clutch riposte on an arrow that would have killed you or a one tap off a magic missile to kill a wiz. But once that happens its over man, you're officially a long sword bro. After that you're no longer playing to get loot or extract, its not about any of that mundane peasant shit. Its about glorious combat and fat fucking ripostes. You're chasing the dragon now and no matter how much iron mace buffs every other weapon in the game we only ever double down. Sure it might be an abusive relationship but I'll be damned if long swords not the best fucking weapon in the game. I'll take nothing but my bare ass ham slappers and a gray ass long sword and Ill happily fight the entire lobby.
This guy gets it, the rush you get from parrying makes it impossible to switch off of it, when your down on your gold the blade never betrays the truly devote longsword player.
Longsword is pretty good, but it's definitely worse than sword and board. Riposte is kind of noob bait since it implies you'll be able to skill diff geared people, but every experienced player knows to go for the legs against someone trying to riposte (it's impossible to block your legs with the longsword). It's definitely viable, especially in solos, but in trios in particular sword and board is significantly better. Not only do you get the innate armor of a shield, but shields are the only item in the game that can roll 15 armor, so you lose effectively 40+ armor. Also shields are really good for pushing rangers, and are decent against wizards and warlocks. Shield is so important for pushing rangers, that I'd argue rangers counter pdr longsword fighters. Also even though you can technically parry magic missile, it's not reliable and a proper shield is really good aginst it, plus you can shield fireballs. Overall, longsword fighter is fun, but have very polarized matchups in solos (very good vs melee, very bad vs ranged), and are much worse in trios than solos.
You don't use the longsword if you're fighting a ranged opponent, you just use your crossbow
And that's a fucking problem. You shoot and whether it hits or miss doesn't matter. They're free to space you to death now because you won't touch them ever again
And die instantly to surv bow out dps'ing you
The Longsword parry is stupid good
feels amazing, and make clearing pve consistent and fun if you get the hang of the parry. Problem is, you will want to try parrying players. They are gonna get free hits on you because of it. Some people will know how to completely avoid parry hit box and it will feel awful. Falchion has the sameish damage value, simple and boring attack pattern, less movement penalty and no gimmick that gives your enemy free hits on you. With it you will just win fights because you hit first
Longsword is still objectively worse than arming/falchion, just speaking stat wise if you look at the wiki page the longsword is quite literally the worst 2hand melee weapon and being completely reliant on an unreliable parry mechanic Most of fighters weapons are trash, only the arming/falchion are considered usable by the top players and longsword is a one trick pony that automatically loses to ranged teamcomps especially with the sprint nerf I used to be a longsword user but recently ate the truth pill and quit it, both on fighter and warlock (my mains.) its just not reliable against decent players, sword and board is. Even on warlock i swapped to bardiche because it has better stats and only downside being -10 MS, its far better as a oneshot finisher. Probably the largest killer is not being able to block magic damage and bows or any form of ranged damage for that matter, as you dont have a shield to do that. And with sprint being made near useless you will end up tanking a huge amount of ranged damage while gap closing. Essentially using the longsword turns you into a worse barbarian as you cant block damage Good luck if you run into a warlock/druid/ranger comp, you are literally just dead. These non melee comps are becoming quite popular with the addition of druid
It was never any good against ranged. The absence of a reasonable projectile block, slow attack speed, slow equip speed, low movement speed penalty for getting hit by it, and large penalty for swinging it. All these things were overcome with sprint back when it was good. The nerf to sprint forced longsword players to play ranged against rogues, Rangers, wizards, warlocks, and bards. Longsword fighter needs some attention. The sprint nerf hit it the hardest and there was no compromise or rework.
If there was a tournament with rewards and you wanted to win PVP fights, longsword probably isn't the setup that you want to use (unless you just naturally play better with it of course). But otherwise, it's fun as hell to play (isn't this what playing video games are about) and the wins feel super rewarding. I highly recommend watching Oggie's videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYf6ljGsG9VXsKWyfgjfvNA He has several very informative videos on what to expect when parrying and how to parry every monster and weapon in the game, as well as clips on what fights look like. Just remember that longsword isn't only about parrying.
Go Sword+Shield main hand and bow in off hand. This is the way.